PRESIDENT Duterte will not raise the issue of the territorial dispute in the South China Sea during the Asean Summit in Lao PDR next month, stressing that he would wait for a more friendly atmosphere before starting the official bilateral negotiations with China.
Mr. Duterte said he would only raise the issue of the Philippines’s victory in the arbitration case it filed against China in a bilateral setting, and not before the Asean Summit in Laos, which he is scheduled to attend in September.
“No, [I will not ask for their help in enforcing the ruling]. I will only bring the issue when we are together face to face,” Mr. Duterte said.
He added, however, that any bilateral negotiation with China will have as its starting point the arbitration ruling of the United Nations’ Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), which ruled in July in favor of the Philippines and declared as invalid China’s nine-dash- line claim, which gives Beijing ownership of most of the South China Sea.
Mr. Duterte said the bilateral negotiations will start after the two countries have created an environment conducive to negotiations.
Last week the President sent former President Fidel V. Ramos to Hong Kong for back-channel talks aimed at building trust between the Philippines and China, in preparation for official bilateral negotiations to enforce the arbitration ruling.
“Because if you quarrel with them now, and you claim sovereignty, make noise here and there, they might not just even want to talk. So, Ramos is there paving the way for the good offices of anybody or any other country, but you know, we maintain good relations with China. Let us create an environment where we can sit down and talk directly, then that is the time that I would say: ‘We proceed from here. We proceed from this judgment,’” he said.
Mr. Duterte also reiterated his earlier stand against an all-out war with China over the disputed territories in the South China Sea.
“If we quarrel with them and they refuse to talk, can we do anything? We can’t do anything. Can we declare war? It is not an option, and I would not be stupid to do that. It could only be a massacre for all. Maybe many for us, some of them, but still war is not an option nowadays,” he said.
3 comments
of course not., you dont have the balls to do it…
Of course not! Because the Philippine is all out war against China directly on its own interest. Not the interest of Asean and its future. Wake up Asean people. We are being pulled into a war that was never ours. But the U.S using puppet Philippine as the war fire starter!
We are not a puppet country.., US is our big brother.., we have to admit that we need help from our big bro to fight a bully.. which is your country.