HO CHI MINH CITY — While a resolution to the South China Sea disputes is unlikely in the near future, improving ties between Beijing and Manila could bode well for maritime peace in the region. When Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte visited China in October, some worried he was pivoting away from the United States. But […]

The President of the Phillipines’ flip-flops over the South China Sea disputes have been crashing the country’s equities market, which is down 7.2 percent in the last month. Apparently, investors are concerned about the political and economic future of that nation, and the prospects for on-going economic integration of the region and the global economy […]

In a year of global populism, no world leader has been more conspicuous than Rodrigo Duterte, the new Philippine president. But Duterte’s inflammatory rhetoric and reactionary policies have trickled into foreign and security policy matters, too, threatening to upend Washington’s pivot to Asia. Most recently, Duterte announced that he was suspending joint military patrols and […]

For months, China has been expanding its claims to waters and islands off its shores, leading to conflict with neighbors and even the U.S., which has dispatched warships to the region to defy the rapidly growing military power in Asia. Now, shots have been fired in another of China’s sea fights. This time it’s with […]

A recent decision by an international tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, has significant implications for other maritime disputes, freedom of navigation, and future oil and gas claims in the Arctic. The arbitral award issued on July 12, 2016, by a unanimous five-member panel or Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the dispute between the Philippines […]

MANILA As the Indonesian army marched at the presidential palace in Jakarta in August to celebrate the nation’s Independence Day, the navy and coast guard units were smashing holes in fishing boats that had encroached on its territory. They sank 60 vessels that day, most of them were foreign-flagged. The record-setting action brought to 236 […]

MALACAÑANG on Wednesday was uncertain whether China will permanently allow the Filipinos to fish in the Panatag Shoal in the West Philippine Sea. Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella told reporters that the present arrangement between the Philippines is that Filipino fishermen can now “go and fish” in the shoal. “At this stage, we’re not talking guarantees. […]

The Philippines should find a “win-win” solution and a “face-saving” scenario for China in the issue of the overlapping claims in the South China Sea, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio has said. Carpio made the remarks in the wake of President Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s bilateral talks in Beijing and Filipino fishermen […]

Conservationists are delighted that the Ross Sea has been designated a marine protected area Delegates from 24 countries and the European Union have agreed that the Ross Sea in Antarctica will become the world’s largest marine protected area (MPA). Some 1.57m sq km (600,000 sq miles) of the Southern Ocean will gain protection from commercial […]

Australia is considering joint naval patrols with Indonesia in the contested South China Sea, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said on Tuesday. Bishop said Indonesia’s request for joint patrols at a bilateral meeting in Bali last week was “consistent with our policies of exercising our right of freedom of navigation.” “That’s in accordance with international […]