Bilateral talks may set tone for Hague ruling mention
THE INAUGURAL bilateral consultations that the Philippines and China will hold tomorrow to zero in on the South China Sea issue could provide a “setting” for Manila to finally bring up its legal victory against Beijing’s maritime encroachment, the Philippine ambassador to China said yesterday.
Friday’s bilateral meeting — which aims to put the maritime row issue on a “separate track” while Manila and Beijing foster economic and diplomatic ties — will be held in China’s Guiyang City.
Philippine Ambassador to China Jose Santiago L. Sta. Romana will lead the country’s delegation while China will be represented by Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua. Both sides agreed to meet twice a year.
In a televised media interview in Beijing on Wednesday which aired also in Manila, Mr. Sta. Romana said the upcoming negotiations could possibly give the Philippines the opportunity to put its legally won maritime entitlements on the table.
But that would only happen “at the proper time,” Mr. Sta. Romana said, adding that the upcoming bilateral talks should not begin with “the issue that will divide you.”
“This is the mechanism that could provide a setting for it,” the Filipino diplomat said, responding to a question on whether the bilateral consultative meeting is the “right platform” to discuss the Hague ruling.
“The question is at what point will you bring it up and the President’s instruction is quite clear: at the proper time. We don’t start with the issue that will divide you… If there is a mechanism for discussing it, this is it.”
Ties between Manila and Beijing had strained under the administration of former Philippine President Benigno S. C. Aquino III after the former challenged Beijing in a United Nationsbacked arbitral tribunal that
ruled against the Asian power’s sweeping claims in the contested sea.
But Mr. Aquino’s successor, Rodrigo R. Duterte, has shifted the country’s diplomatic focus by seeking support from China for massive infrastructure projects, moving away from its traditional treaty ally, the US.
Mr. Duterte has set aside the arbitral ruling and said he will revisit it later in his term — a move that critics describe as a silent position taken by the chief executive on the territorial row that dogged his predecessors.
“Sometimes you have to give diplomacy a chance,” Mr. Sta. Romana said, adding that China had already “softened” its stance when Mr. Duterte charted an independent foreign policy by “no longer acting in the interest of a foreign power” — an apparent reference to Washington.
Besides China and the Philippines, Asian neighbors Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan also have overlapping claims to the South China Sea.
Trillion dollars’ worth of ship-borne goods annually pass through the strategic waterway, which is also known for its abundance of fish and potential oil reserves.
Ahead of the bilateral consultations, Mr. Duterte said he is open to a trilateral oil exploration in the resource-rich sea with rival claimants China and Vietnam, but “it has to be fair and it has to be balanced.”
“CONSENSUS”
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a regular press briefing on Tuesday — an English transcript of which was posted yesterday on the foreign ministry’s website — that China “commends” Mr. Duterte for reaching a consensus with his Chinese counterpart to “properly resolve” the sea row through a bilateral consultation.
“China would like to work with the Philippines to implement the relevant consensus reached between the two leaders, and maintain the long- term development of bilateral relations as well as peace and stability in the South China Sea, which is also in line with the responsibilities that must be shouldered by China and the Philippines,” read the transcript of Ms. Hua’s briefing.
Mr. Duterte visited Beijing for the second time last week and had separate dialogues with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on the sidelines of the China-sponsored Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.
Mr. Duterte also witnessed the signing of bilateral agreements on energy, communications, financing, and human resource development.
“China is very liberal and generous,” he said upon his return from Beijing. “We have always been very thankful to China for its generosity.”