MANILA, Philippines–Who would have thought that the tiny Philippines would be a thorn in the side of giant China? Magdalo Rep. Francisco Ashley Acedillo said the Philippines’ geographic location is in the way of China’s defense strategy in the Asia-Pacific region, giving its ally, the United States, a base from which to counter China. “Our […]
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines has reiterated its call for signatory states to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), including China, to respect the treaty amid rising tensions in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea). The government made the appeal during the 24th meeting of state parties to […]
SINGAPORE, Jun 11 (IPS) – China’s early-May decision to dispatch the state-of-the-art oil rig, HYSY981, into Vietnam’s 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), has intensified ongoing territorial disputes in the South China Sea, raising fears of uncontrolled military escalation in one of the world’s most important waterways. It wasn’t long before Vietnamese and Chinese maritime forces were […]
Dr Nguyen Toan Thang from the Hanoi Law University says Vietnam has the right to sue China for violating its sovereignty in the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. He says Vietnam has sufficient legal basis to assert that Haiyang Shiyou-981 has been placed deep inside its […]
Abstract The United States should develop and promulgate a National Strategy for the South China Sea (NSSCS) as part of its ongoing efforts to counter Chinese aggression in the region and to resolve the disputes there in a peaceful manner. It behooves the United States to shift its current posture in the South China Sea […]
Fueled by China’s growing assertiveness as a rising global power, tensions over territorial disputes have mounted in the Asia-Pacific region. In November last year, Beijing unilaterally expanded its Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) to cover most of the East China Sea, triggering a bitter dispute with Tokyo as the ADIZ also covers the airspace above […]
As China brings in a $1 billion oil exploration rig, parking it in a disputed region of the South China Sea and unleashing a deadly anti-China protest in Vietnam, nearby Southeast Asian neighbors appear relatively mute and impotent. Burma (also known as Myanmar), which hosted the meeting of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations, […]
Naypyidaw, Myanmar. Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said on Friday that it was important for members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China “to quickly conclude” the talks on a code of conduct on the South China Sea. “The recent incident in the South China Sea reminded us of the importance of concluding […]
President Benigno Aquino III will be pushing for the early conclusion of the drafting of the set of rules meant to avoid conflict in the South China Sea at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Myanmar. “I am sure the President will be bringing up this agenda item. I think he will […]
Next Monday the senior officials from Asean and China will be meeting in Pattaya after they met last September at Suzhou, China where they kicked off official consultation on the process of formulating code of conducts (CoC) for the South China Sea. It was a turning point as China expressed the readiness to engage Asean […]