FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario met with United Nations
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to advance the Philippines’ commitment to
settle the recent territorial disputes in the West Philippine Sea
through a rules-based approach based on international laws.
In a meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York City,
both officials agreed on the importance of peaceful settlement of
disputes and mediation.
Del Rosario reiterated the Philippine government’s commitment to
finding a peaceful solution on the dispute based on the United Nations
Charter on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)
and on applicable international laws.
“We believe that the unfolding events are of great interest to all
nations, as they have a stake in the peace and stability of this
economically and politically strategic area,” he said.
The Philippine government has continuously decried the allegedly
Chinese intrusions in its territorial waters over the past year.
The latest row in the Panatag Shoal, which sits just 124 nautical
miles away from Zambales province and is within the country’s
200-nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and continental shelf,
started when Philippine forces boarded eight Chinese fishing vessels to
confiscate illegally caught marine species.
Two Chinese surveillance ships immediately arrived and put themselves
between the BRP Gregorio del Pilar, Manila’s largest warship, and the
Chinese fishing vessels.
The Philippines see this as an incursion into its territory since the Panatag Shoal sits about 500 nautical miles from China.
Beijing and Manila has overlapping claims over the contested waters
in the West Philippine Sea, which includes the Spratly and Paracel
Islands, as well as the Panatag Shoal.
China maintains its claim on the whole sea while the Philippines,
Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei Darussalam have claims on parts on
potentially resource-rich Spratly Islands.
In the meeting, Ban highlighted the importance of instruments on the peaceful settlement of disputes.
The Philippines has led efforts in the United Nations to mark the
30th anniversary of the adoption of the 1982 Manila Declaration on the
Peaceful Settlement of Disputes this year through a General Assembly
resolution that calls on member-states “to promote and observe in good
faith” the historic declaration.
Ban welcomed the Manila-initiated resolution, which was approved by
consensus at the recent session on the Special Committee on the Charter
of the United Nations.
The resolution is currently up for adoption at the Sixth Committee and the General Assembly.
“I hope that our work on promoting mediation will build on the
groundwork already laid by the Manila Declaration,” Ban said, adding
that preventing conflict is one of my five priority agendas in the UN.
SunStar.Com.Ph | May 5, 2012 | Article Link
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