SFA Manalo emphasizes UNCLOS’ essence at Asean maritime assemblies
‘CONSTITUTION OF THE OCEANS, INSTRUMENT OF INTERNATIONAL LAW’
THE Philippines led timely discussions on multifaceted maritime issues with participants from Asean and its partners.
This, as the country hosted the 12th Asean Maritime Forum (AMF) and the 10th Expanded Asean Maritime Forum (EAMF) in Manila on December 6 and 7.
In his keynote at the commemoration dinner, Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo stated: “It is often said that the UNCLOS [United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea] is a ‘constitution of the oceans.’ The heft of this description should not be lost on us, 40 years onward.”
Manalo further stated: “The crafting of a constitution for any country is a massive national undertaking. Not only does it lay down the foundations for structures and institutions for a country, but a constitution [distilled] into a single document the common values and norms shared by a people.”
He continued: “In Asean, reference to the UNCLOS is now a staple in statements and outcome documents pertaining to maritime security and cooperation. It has essentially been elevated to the status of agreed language…now more than ever, Asean must be more intentional with its words. There must be no doubt that for [the region], we uniformly subscribe to the UNCLOS as an instrument of international law.”
Established in 2010, the AMF is a venue for dialogue on a wide range of maritime issues such as maritime-security trends, maritime cooperation, maritime-domain awareness, and maritime-environmental protection, among others.
Topics discussed at the 12th AMF included stocking of maritime-related activities in Asean, review of the implementation of the 1982 UNCLOS in its 40th anniversary, and exchange of views on regional maritime developments.
Assistant Secretary Daniel Espiritu of the Department of Foreign Affairs’ (DFA) Office of Asean Affairs cited the AMF’S importance as a “single venue to discuss crosscutting maritime issues of common concern…beneficial for the region in coordinating its work across all sectoral bodies and Asean-led mechanisms.”
The EAMF, on the other hand, is a “Track 1.5” venue for Asean and its dialogue-partners to discuss a wide range of maritime issues. It was established in 2012 with the Philippines as inaugural chair.
Expert presentations and discussions at the 10th EAMF centered on Asean’s UNCLOS implementation, implications of sea-level rise, information-exchange mechanisms, and combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing or IUUF.
The assistant secretary noted the importance of holding the EAMF in Manila on its 10th iteration, as he recalled that the inaugural EAMF was also held in the Philippine capital in 2012.
Espiritu, Assistant Secretary Maria Angela Ponce of the DFA’S Maritime and Oceans Affairs Office, and Deputy Assistant Secretary Noel Novicio of the DFA Office of Asean Affairs, jointly chaired the two meetings.
The Philippines also took the opportunity of hosting the two fora in Manila to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 1982 UNCLOS.