South China Sea: Malaysia rejects Philippines’ Sabah claim in new diplomatic note
- The missive shows the row over the waterway is a complex intramural dispute that does not just pit China against Southeast Asian claimants, a source says
- Despite Manila’s resurgent public remarks about Sabah, Putrajaya’s note – its second in a month – ‘isn’t motivated by recent actions by the Philippines’
This month’s note shines a light on how the dispute is in fact a complex intramural row among all the claimants, and not one that simply pits regional giant China against Southeast Asian parties, a Malaysian source said.
The claimant states – as well as non-claimants the United States and Australia – have in recent months been using diplomatic notes to UN secretary general Antonio Guterres as a means of fleshing out their respective positions over the South China Sea, which has emerged as a proxy in the ongoing US-China rivalry.
Malaysia’s latest missive was in response to a Philippine note in March that challenged Putrajaya’s plan to establish an extended continental shelf in waters off the eastern state of Sabah, on the island of Borneo.
Manila in its note raised two key objections, saying Putrajaya was claiming waters in the Kalayaan island group it claims as its own, and that Malaysia’s plan was also based on projections from Sabah – over which the Philippines has never relinquished sovereignty. Malaysia’s control over Sabah is largely undisputed, though Philippine officials from time to time publicise Manila’s position that the region is part of its Sulu province.