THE Philippines is talking with other Southeast Asian countries that also have claims in the South China Sea to establish a code of conduct in the resource-rich sea.
Aside from the Philippines, ASEAN members Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei also claim parts of the South China Sea.
“We are now in the midst of negotiating our own code of conduct, for example, with Vietnam because we are still waiting for the code of conduct between China and ASEAN, and the progress has been rather slow, unfortunately, so we’ve taken the initiative to approach those other countries around ASEAN with whom we have existing territorial conflicts,” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said during a question and answer session in the Daniel Inouye Speaker Series at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu on Sunday.
Marcos said the most primordial concern is to maintain peace in the region amid China’s assertive behavior, which included harassment of Filipino vessels on resupply missions to the BRP Sierra Madre, a grounded Navy ship that serves as a military outpost in the Philippine-occupied Ayungin Shoal.
“Now it’s becoming more and more [common]. Every so often, there is a confrontation between outside forces and Philippine forces,” he said.
Marcos also called for strengthening partnerships “with all our neighbors and with all friendly nations who share our ideals, who share our aspirations, who share our values, and who respect the rule of international law.”
“And this has been something that we have tried to develop, and we have, I believe, had some measure of success, and we will continue to do this. But again, the bedrock of any of these partnerships is the partnership and treaty arrangement that we have, the Mutual Defense Treaty that we have with the United States,” he said.
