Philippines welcomes John Kerry support on South China Sea dispute

Manila: The Philippines on Wednesday said it welcomes US Secretary of State John Kerry’s commitment for a peaceful resolution to the South China Sea dispute even if such a solution does not sit well with China.

In a statement, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said he received a commitment from Kerry during a meeting in Washington last April 2 that the U.S. would continue to work with the Philippines in seeking a peaceful solution to the conflicting claims in the West Philippine Sea (WPS or South China Sea).

During the April 2 meeting — the first between the chief diplomats of the two allied countries since the former senator assumed his new position early this year — Kerry was quoted by Del Rosario as saying that the U.S. favors arbitration as the main instrument to resolve the issue.

“I stressed that we are committed to seeing this arbitration through. There should be no confusion or any doubts about our resolve,” the Secretary said, adding that Secretary Kerry is fully supportive of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and was one of its strongest advocates for its ratification in the U.S. Senate.

“We are deeply concerned about some of these tensions and would like to see it worked out through a process of arbitration,” Del Rosario quoted Kerry.

Kerry, a former U.S. Navy officer who served during the Vietnam War, had said that the US is concerned over the tensions in the West Philippines Sea.

China’s People Liberation Army-Navy (PLA-N) and the Philippine Navy and Coast Guard had been involved in recent months in a sea conflict in Mischief Reef, a sea territory located just 80 nautical miles from the Philippines’ Zambales province. Although there had been no incident of actual exchange of fire between the naval arms of the two countries, observers are apprehensive that actual hostilities will not be far off unless the issue is resolved by the two countries.

Del Rosario said: “I also updated Secretary Kerry on our arbitration initiative. I emphasised its importance to the future stability of our region in particular and to the future efficacy of international law in general.”

Likewise Del Rosario and Kerry also agreed to work together in the context of the Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) and other related meetings this year on addressing the situation in the West Philippine Sea through peaceful means.

“I also welcomed Secretary Kerry’s commitment to work with Brunei, the current ASEAN chair, on the issue of the West Philippine Sea. Both the United States and Brunei know that the Philippines is committed to the arbitration case it has filed,” Del Rosario said.

China is reportedly resisting plans before the UN to resolve the sea territory row through arbitration while insisting that areas being claimed by the Philippines are part of its historical domain.