Philippines rejects conditional offer of talks from China on South China Sea dispute
Manila’s envoy says Beijing wanted any dialogue to ignore the international tribunal ruling that dismissed its claims in the disputed waters
Manila has rejected Beijing’s demand that it “disregards” an international tribunal’s ruling over the South China Sea before the two sides can begin talks, the Philippines’ top diplomat said.
Although the two nations faced obstacles in resolving the dispute, they could take smaller steps, for example discussing fishing rights, experts said.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay said he met Wang Yi, his Chinese counterpart, on the sidelines of a Asia-Europe summit in Mongolia last week.
Wang asked Manila to disregard the ruling handed down by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and begin talks, according to Yasay.
“This is something I told him was not consistent with our constitution and our national interest,” he said in an interview with a Philippine TV station.
In a statement, the Chinese foreign ministry did not mention any preconditions for negotiations. “Promoting a return to dialogue ... is in the fundamental interests of the two countries and their people,” the statement said.
The tribunal ruled last week there was no legal basis for China’s historic claims to the disputed waters. Beijing said it would ignore the ruling, but called for resolving the disputes through bilateral negotiations. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said he wants to send a special envoy to Beijing for talks.
Chito Sta Romana, president of the Manila-based Philippine Association for Chinese studies, said that despite the challenges facing the two nations, their representatives could still discuss other issues such as fishing rights.
“There has been domestic pressure on both sides,” he said. “In the Philippines, there has been pressure for Duterte not to give up the tribunal ruling.”
Duterte is scheduled to hold a national security meeting next week where the implications of the ruling would be discussed. He was also expected to lay out Manila’s negotiation strategy, Romana said.
Zhang Mingliang, a Southeast Asian affairs expert at Jinan University, said resuming talks was possible in the long run as both nations had expressed willingness to improve relations.
“It is understandable that the Philippines will not give up on the ruling, which is highly favourable to its claims,” he said. “ A drastic improvement in bilateral relations is not likely at this stage as both sides are exploring the other’s bottom line and the different options.”
The People’s Liberation Army is stepping up military drills in the disputed waters, while there have been calls by some members of the mainland public for economic retaliation.
But Gao Yan, deputy minister of commerce, said China had not boycotted any Philippine products and trade relations between the two sides had remained steady over the past year.
Additional reporting by Reuters and Agence France-Presse