Duterte to discuss ‘Sea ruling’ in visit

‘Countermeasures’

MANILA, Aug 6, (Agencies): Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will soon meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to discuss a 2016 arbitration case over the South China Sea, his spokesman said on Tuesday, as domestic pressure grows on the firebrand leader to stand up to Beijing.

Despite his huge popularity and polls consistently delivering an approval rating of 80 percent and over, the same surveys have shown Filipinos have little trust of China and want their government to stand up to perceived maritime bullying.

Among the most contentious issues is Duterte’s decision to set aside a ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the Hague to curry favour with Beijing, in exchange for vague pledges of billion-dollar investment packages that largely have yet to materialise.

That ruling made clear numerous Philippines maritime entitlements under international law and effectively invalidated China’s controversial nine-dash line claim to sovereignty over most of the South China Sea.

Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said he had asked Duterte whose idea it was to hold fresh talks with Xi. “Remember that I said before that there will be a time when I will invoke that arbitral ruling?,” Panelo told a regular briefing, quoting Duterte.

“’This is the time. That’s why I am going there’ – that’s what he said,” Panelo added.

He did not give a date for Duterte’s trip to China but said it was likely before the end of this month.

Duterte

Disputed

The trip would come at a time when China is receiving international pushback over the conduct of coastguard and fishing militia in disputed areas of the South China Sea, including from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who last week blasted Beijing for “decades of bad behaviour”, in trade and at sea.

Although Duterte, who is known for scolding Western leaders, has stood by China and defended his policy of rapprochement and non-confrontation, his defence officials have spoken out.

Two diplomatic protests have been filed, the first over what the Philippines said was a recent “swarming” of more than 100 Chinese fishing boats near a tiny Philippine-occupied island.

The other was about an unannounced passage in July of five Chinese warships through the Philippines’ 12mile territorial sea, which Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said was “a failure to observe protocol or common courtesy”.

A Social Weather Stations poll published last month showed most Filipinos wanted the government to assert its claim to disputed islands in Spratlys and arrest Chinese fishermen caught destroying marine resources.

Panelo also said Duterte was interested in furthering discussions about jointly exploring “60-40” for offshore energy reserves inside the Philippines Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)

Meanwhile, China said Tuesday it “will not stand idly by” and will take countermeasures if the US deploys intermediate-range missiles in the Indo-Pacific region, which it plans to do within months.

The statement from the director of the foreign ministry’s Arms Control Department, Fu Cong, follows the US’s withdrawal last week from the IntermediateRange Nuclear Forces Treaty, a move Fu said would have a “direct negative impact on the global strategic stability” as well as security in Europe and the AsiaPacific region.

Fu said China was particularly concerned about announced plans to develop and test a land-based intermediate-range missile in the Asia-Pacific “sooner rather than later,” in the words of one US official.

“China will not stand idly by and be forced to take countermeasures should the US deploy intermediaterange ground-based missiles this part of the world,” Fu told reporters at a specially called briefing.

He also advised other nations, particularly South Korea, Japan and Australia, to “exercise prudence” and not allow the US to deploy such weapons on their territory, saying that would “not serve the national security interests of these countries.”

Defense

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in Asia over the weekend that he wanted to deploy midrange conventional missiles in the Asia-Pacific within months. Australia previously said the locations for the bases were not yet known but it would not be one of them.

Fu also said China had no intention of joining nuclear weapons reduction talks with the US and Russia, pointing to the huge gap in the size of China’s arsenal compared to those of the other two. China has an estimated 290 nuclear warheads deployed, compared to 1,600 for Russia and 1,750 for the US, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for urgent arms control talks to prevent a chaotic arms race following the treaty’s demise. He also said Monday that Russia would only deploy new intermediate-range missiles if the United States does.

China has already shown “maximum restraint” in developing its arsenal and stuck to its policy that it would not be the first to use a nuclear weapon in a conflict, Fu said.

“I don’t think it is reasonable or even fair to expect China to participate in an arms reduction negotiation at this stage,” Fu said, but added that China remained committed to multilateral efforts to reduce nuclear stockpiles such as the UN’s Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, although it has yet to ratify that agreement.

Fu wouldn’t elaborate on what countermeasures China was considering taking against the US, saying only that “everything is on the table,” although he did say China has never and would never take part in a nuclear arms race.

Nor would he say how China might retaliate against countries that hosted US land-based intermediate-range missiles, although China has in past used economic means to retaliate against South Korea over its deployment of a US anti-missile defense system known as THAAD.

Fu dismissed US arguments for leaving the INF as “pure pretext,” saying Washington was merely looking for an excuse to develop new weapons. If it truly believes Russia is cheating on the treaty, as it says, than the way forward is to negotiate rather than withdraw, Fu said.

Meanwhile, Washington’s argument that it is threatened by China because 80 percent or more of Chinese missiles fall into the intermediate-range category doesn’t hold up, since those missiles would be unable to reach the continental US.