By Michaela Del Callar
MANILA, June 16 (PNA) — The Philippines is proposing a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China for a moratorium on construction in disputed areas in the South China Sea, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said on Monday amid China’s rapid expansion activities in contested features.
“We ought to consider getting together and freezing all activities that escalate tension. Let’s call for a moratorium in terms of activities that escalate tension,” Del Rosario told ANC News.
In a move aimed at halting ongoing Chinese construction in several areas, which the Philippines claims as part of its territory, Del Rosario said he hopes the meeting could take place within the year.
“We would use the international community to step up and to say that we need to manage the tensions in the South China Sea before it gets out of hand. We would do this with ASEAN and the (other) claimant states,” Del Rosario said.
The Philippines, he said, would seek the consensus of the ASEAN in order to move the meeting forward.
ASEAN and China, which asserts “indisputable” claim over nearly the entire waters, signed a non-aggression pact in 2002 that discourages aggressive actions and bars construction of new structures in the contested waters to prevent armed conflicts. It also calls on the claimant countries to undertake joint projects, such as anti-piracy exercises and marine researches, to build trust and confidence and lower the risks of fighting among armed forces stationed in disputed islands and reefs.
However, many regard the nonbinding 2002 accord as lacking in teeth and a dispute-settlement scheme to effectively deal with the territorial disputes, sparking calls for a more effective and legally-binding code of conduct.
Of the 10 ASEAN members, four are claimants to the South China Sea, namely the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei. Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar are the other ASEAN members.
Taiwan, which is considered by China as its renegade province, is also a claimant to the resource-rich waters.
The 10-member bloc has aspired to hammer a regional code with China to avoid conflicting territorial claims in the vast potentially-oil rich sea from erupting into violent confrontations or worse, an economically-devastating major conflict.
Such a goal has acquired urgency due to recent confrontations between China and the Philippines, on one hand, and Vietnam and China on the other in contested South China Sea offshore territories.
Both the Philippines and Vietnam have accused China of aggressive behavior, intruding into their territorial waters, disrupting oil exploration and harassing fishermen.
China was also found to be reclaiming disputed features, including those that are within the Philippines exclusive economic zone that was renamed West Philippine Sea by the Philippine government.
“Let’s do that while we work on an expeditious conclusion of the Code of Conduct and effective and full implementation of those. I would like to initiate it and I think it’s a reasonable approach,” Del Rosario said as he called on all ASEAN members to “stand together” to ensure freedom of navigation and overflights in the South China Sea.
“We need to do something quickly,” Del Rosario stressed. (PNA)