South China Sea: ‘no sense’ in pushing Philippines’ case at UN General Assembly, Locsin says

Foreign secretary rejects call for Philippines to raise issue of enforcing 2016 arbitral ruling at the General Assembly in September
Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana welcomes news that his US counterpart Mark Esper is hoping to visit China

South China Sea

Alan Robles

Published: 8:37pm, 22 Jul 2020

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The Philippine foreign secretary on Wednesday rejected a call for Manila to press its South China Sea dispute with Beijing at the United Nations General Assembly this September.

Teodoro Locsin Jnr said it wouldn’t “make any sense” to revisit the 2016 ruling of a UN arbitral court that sided with Manila against China’s territorial claims as “we won it already”.

“Why would you want to re-litigate something that you won? You don’t like you won?” asked Locsin, referring to a suggestion by the former foreign affairs secretary Albert del Rosario that the Philippines raise the issue of enforcement at the summit.

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China has repeatedly said it does not recognise the 2016 ruling and the Philippine President, Rodrigo Duterte, who came to power shortly after the ruling was made, has previously suggested “setting aside” the judgment as he wants to bring the Philippines closer to China and away from its traditional ally, the United States.

Philippines' Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jnr. Photo: Reuters

However, a policy shift by Washington this month which saw the US reject most of Beijing’s claims in the strategic waterway as “unlawful” has prompted some observers to suggest now would be an opportune time for the Philippines to press its claims. Two American aircraft carriers have been carrying out exercises in the South China Sea this month in what some observers have characterised as a show of force to Beijing.

But Locsin said there was no point in revisiting the issue.

“The point is we won [the arbitral ruling. China] don’t want to recognise it, OK, but we know we have the law on our side, we have The Hague on our side,” added Locsin, who was speaking at a press conference meant to prepare for Duterte’s state of the nation address on Sunday.

Responding to a question about how the Duterte government maintained a balanced and independent foreign policy, Locsin said it had done so “brilliantly”.

“We have manoeuvred always in good faith, we have never done anything in a sneaky fashion, we have been very forthright in our claims and we have stood by our claims.”

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Describing the Philippines as “the rampart of stability of peace and freedom on this part of the world”, Locsin said “geography has decided our fate, our fate is to be a balanced and independent power”.

“As I told the People’s Liberation Army publication editor I said, you know those little features out there? There’s a whole avenue of cooperation between China and the Philippines. An avenue leading to mutually beneficial economic progress but in that road there is a little pebble called our feature and it’s ours. And on that pebble we might one day stumble and if we stumble it really will be bad but in the meantime we can go around it. There are other areas of cooperation.”

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Lauro Baja, a retired foreign affairs undersecretary who twice served as president of the United Nations Security Council, criticised Locsin’s comments, saying “after four years of shelving the award, the Philippines is unable to get the so-called ‘fruitful economic relations’ it had hoped to get.”

“We [the Philippines] should have gone to the UN within the year that China rejected the award. We have the law already. We go to the UN to explore ways to blunt China’s intransigence,” he said.

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Locsin’s comments at the press conference were in contrast to the unusually strong statement he issued on July 12, the fourth anniversary of the ruling, in which he called the court decision a “milestone” that was “non-negotiable”.

That statement prompted an immediate response from the Chinese embassy, which reiterated that “China does not accept or participate in the arbitration, nor does it accept or recognise the so-called award.”

Following Locsin’s July 12 statement, Chinese foreign secretary Wang Yi asked for a video conference with Locsin.

Locsin on Wednesday recounted the video call, saying that in it he “reaffirmed the wisdom of my president and President Xi Jinping. The last time they met they said very clearly: ‘We can’t agree so let’s just agree to disagree and see if we can move forward from there’.”

US Defence Secretary Mark Esper. Photo: AFP

ESPER’S VISIT ‘GOOD FOR REGION’

The press conference also heard from the Philippine defence secretary, Delfin Lorenzana, who responded to news that his US counterpart Mark Esper was hoping to visit China by the end of the year to improve “crisis communications” channels.

Lorenzana welcomed the news, saying “If the two superpowers will discuss things it would be good for us in the region.”

Asked what the Philippines felt about the US sending naval forces to the South China Sea, Lorenzana said, “we are not part of their activities, they do it on their own, if it creates peace and stability, then it’s also good for us.”

However, he added: “It can also create trouble and instability and we will be adversely affected, so it cuts both ways.”

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Call to push sea row at UN rejected by minister

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