Dialogue, demilitarization recommended in the Spratlys

Experts on foreign policy and Asian politics yesterday gathered in Makati to discuss “a blueprint for resolve” toward a region of peace, cooperation and progress amidst brewing hostilities in the West Philippines’ Sea.

The government last month announced that the West Philippine Sea will be used to refer to waters west of the country where the Philippines has overlapping territorial claims with five other nations, instead of referring to it as South China Sea.

China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan have competing claims in the oil-rich Spratlys.

Tensions between China and the Philippines have escalated after it was reported that from February to May, the Chinese Navy allegedly opened fire on Filipino fishermen, intimidated a Philippine oil exploration ship and put posts and a buoy in Philippine-claimed areas.

“The South China Sea disputes are a litmus test of China’s attitudes and behavior toward its smaller neighbors, it being the region’s newest and biggest power,” Aileen San Pablo-Baviera, professor of Asian Studies at the University of the Philippines, said in her paper “A Multi-level approach to ASEAN-China Cooperation in the South China Sea,” presented in the conference.

Ms. Baviera further said “territorial disputes in the South China Sea are not stand-alone issues but rather, are implicated in conflicting maritime jurisdiction claims, brewing big power conflict, and in the imperative of managing shared ocean spaces beset with transnational maritime security challenges.”

To resolve the dispute, analysts said it is important to engage China and Southeast Asian nations in a dialogue “to lower the temperature” and “tame the turbulence” so that hostilities will be prevented.

Maj. Gen. Vinod Sainghal of the Eco Monitors Society in India noted “elementary first steps that could have formed the basis for lasting peace in the region.”

These are:

• pledge to halt further occupation, construction activity, militarization or stationing of naval ships in the Spratlys;

• gradual dismantling of existing military structures by a given date; and

• a common approach to exploitation of natural resources in the areas.

In his paper, “South China Sea: Taming the Turbulence,” Nazery Khalid of the Maritime Institute of Malaysia proposed that a legally binding code of conduct be signed by China and other claimant countries as a conflict prevention mechanism.

It is also advisable, Mr. Khalid added, to “seek third-party mechanism to settle disputes, such as via the International Court of Justice and the Law of the Sea Tribunal.”

“Referring disputes for mediation, arbitration or adjudication is the way to go for parties which cannot see eye to eye and cannot break the impasse in their negotiations,” he added.

The conference was convened by the Foreign Service Institute, the National Defense College and the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam. -- Noemi M. Gonzales