FOLLOWING the Philippines’s historic win in the Permanent Court of Arbitration, foreign-policy experts called for an Asean “coalition” to address disputes in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea.)
Policy experts presented the possibilities, viability, limitations and implications to regional security of the decision in a forum organized by the Stratbase Albert Del Rosario Institute (ADRi), in partnership with Asia Society Philippines and the Asian Institute of Management.
“It is time for likeminded Asean states, with direct or indirect stakes, to form a coalition within and coordinate policy vis-à-vis South China Sea,” said Prof. Richard Heydarian, professor at the De La Salle University’s Political Science Department.
Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore are all taking steps to protect their sovereignty in the hotly contested waters, but it’s the Philippines, which sweepingly won an arbitration case that nullified China’s historic claims, that should take the lead, Heydarian added.
Heydarian stressed that the Asean must call for immediate reclamation freeze and reiterate compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Dindo Manhit, president of the Stratbase ADRi, said the Philippines must build on its political capital by sending a stern message at the 28th Asean Summit in Vientiane, Lao PDR that China, as a rising power, must play a constructive, rather than destabilizing, role in the region.
Albert F. del Rosario, former secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and chairman of Stratbase ADRi, said the recently released ruling from the Permanent Court of Arbitration “has now charted a new opportunity for Asean members, claimants or not, to rally once more over the principles that initially brought us together—regional cooperation, shared prosperity and an abiding belief in the moral right of small states to claim the same rights and privileges as anyone else in the our international community. Southeast Asia has a permanent interest in upholding international law.”
Heydarian added that a coalition led by the Philippines should prevent China from trying to occupy other lands, and it should do so without escalating tensions in the already tense region.