South China Sea: is India abandoning neutrality by backing Manila on Hague ruling?

Without naming China, New Delhi voices support for the Philippines in 2016 arbitration decision rejecting Beijing’s claims in contested waters

While some analysts say this signals India is shifting to align with US, others say it will avoid taking sides in wider regional disputes

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India is likely to avoid direct confrontation with China over the South China Sea as long as Beijing does not encroach on New Delhi’s core maritime interests, according to a former Indian naval officer. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 9:00am, 9 Jul 2023Updated: 10:42am, 11 Jul 2023

China is expected to face stronger resistance over the South China Sea after India expressed support for the Philippines’ territorial claims in the contested waters, observers said.

But they said it remained to be seen how far New Delhi, which is locked in a prolonged border stand-off with Beijing in the Himalayas, would go in abandoning its neutrality on the contentious issue.

India, which has built closer economic and security ties with the United States, has steadily made its presence in the South China Sea felt in recent years, they noted.

In a move that is certain to hit a nerve in Beijing, Delhi has, for the first time, voiced support for Manila over a 2016 arbitration ruling that rejected China’s “nine-dash line” claims to the waters.

A joint statement issued after a meeting between Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo and Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Delhi last week said the two countries “underlined the need for peaceful settlement of disputes and for adherence to international law, especially the [UN Convention on the Law of the Sea] and the 2016 Arbitral Award on the South China Sea in this regard”.

The statement did not name China directly but the reference to the 2016 ruling is seen as a shift in Delhi’s position on the territorial disputes in the South China Sea – a thorny issue between China and its Southeast Asian neighbours.