India and Philippines vow stronger cooperation as both eye China’s regional claims with unease

Foreign ministers project solidarity as New Delhi joins Manila’s call for adherence to international law, including arbitration ruling against Beijing

Philippines says it is considering India’s offer to help expand training and joint exercises on maritime security and disaster response

Reading Time:3 minutes

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar speaking in New Delhi in March. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 3:20am, 30 Jun 2023Updated: 4:30am, 30 Jun 2023

The foreign ministers of India and the Philippines pledged on Thursday to bolster bilateral cooperation as they took up common cause against China’s long-running territorial claims in the South China Sea, asserting shared interest in a “free, open and inclusive” Indo-Pacific.

A message of solidarity emerged from the meeting in New Delhi, as India joined the Philippines in calling for adherence to international law, namely the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as well as a 2016 international arbitration ruling in Manila’s favour and against Beijing’s claims of large swathes of the South China Sea.

A joint statement issued after Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo co-chaired the fifth instalment of the India-Philippines Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation said the two diplomats held a “wide-ranging and substantive” discussion on regional and international issues of mutual concern, underlining the need for the “peaceful settlement of disputes”.

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, an international agreement first adopted in 1982, lays out rules governing all uses of the oceans and their resources, including freedom of navigation. With 169 parties, UNCLOS prescribes a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone from the continental coast of a sovereign state.

China and the Philippines have long accused each other of violating UNCLOS, with several other countries in the region also opposing Beijing based on their own territorial claims. China, India and the Philippines are all parties to the treaty.