‘No diplomatic win for China’
Kerry, Duterte meet
MANILA, July 27, (RTRS): The Philippines “vigorously pushed” for the inclusion of a arbitration ruling in a joint statement among Southeast Asian countries but its failure to secure that was no diplomatic win for China, Manila’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.
The Philippines had not sought support from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) or the international community in its arbitration case against Beijing over the South China Sea, and did not want to press the issue to provoke China, Perfecto Yasay said.
Yasay was speaking after returning from a meeting of foreign ministers in Laos, during which ASEAN dropped a US-backed proposal to mention the landmark July 12 court ruling, which nullified Beijing’s claims to most of the South China Sea.
“I am just saying this to dispel the reports that have been said that China came out victorious in the ASEAN meeting because we precisely agreed to not mentioning the arbitral award,” Yasay told a news conference.
“But that (was) not the object of our meeting in ASEAN. The arbitral award is a matter between China and the Philippines.”
Yasay
Victory
Yasay said the issuance of a joint communique was a victory for ASEAN, which was divided but showed it was united on the need to stick to international law and ensure peace.
The Philippines and Vietnam both wanted the ruling and a call to respect international maritime law to feature in the communique, but Cambodia rejected the wording on the ruling, diplomats said, backing instead China’s call for bilateral discussions.
Manila backed down to prevent the disagreement leading to the group failing to issue a joint statement after a meeting for only the second time in its 49-year history. Yasay said the Philippines did not want to gloat over the win, or rock the boat with ASEAN.
Yasay also said he wanted China to take a position so that dialogue could happen but did not say whether the Philippines would insist that the arbitration ruling be discussed.
Yasay met with US counterpart John Kerry on Wednesday in Manila, during which Yasay thanked him for Washington’s support on the court decision.
US Secretary of State John Kerry mets Philippine’s President Rodrigo Duterte in Manila on Wednesday to discuss his new government’s priorities as well as possible dialogue with China on resolving tensions over the South China Sea.
Kerry is the highest-ranking US official to visit the Philippines since Duterte’s election victory in May and follows a meeting of foreign ministers from Southeast Asian nations in Laos this week.
“We are going to hear about (Duterte’s) priorities, we’re going to get to know him,” a US official said ahead of the meeting. “We’re going to discuss how we can work together and where we want to focus.”
Duterte hosted Kerry at the presidential palace for a working lunch, a gesture the US official called “unprecedented and a signal of the importance the new president places on the relationship and the alliance” with the United States.
Kerry said on Tuesday he supported the resumption of talks between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea following an international court ruling against Beijing over the dispute earlier this month.
China has refused to accept the July 12 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, based in The Hague, in which Manila won an emphatic legal victory.
During the meeting in Vientiane, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi asked Kerry to lend his support for bilateral talks to restart between Manila and Beijing.
“I expect the conversation to include more exploration on the question of what a constructive, positive and peaceful and lawful path forward looks like,” the US official said, adding that the Philippines had behaved with restraint since the court ruling.
The official said Kerry would also raise US concerns over “an unhappy history” in the Philippines of extra-judicial killings and violence against journalists.