Archive - South China Sea

President Rodrigo Duterte contradicted his top diplomat when he affirmed the Philippines’ historic arbitral victory against China on the South China Sea dispute during his debut appearance at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly (GA) on Sept. 22.

There are unmistakable signs that Vietnam may have already reached the point of no return in its maritime dispute with China.

Will China have its cake and eat it too at the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS)?

Several options are available to the government to assert its rights over the West Philippine Sea and fortify the arbitral tribunal’s 2016 ruling on the territorial dispute, but the Duterte administration has chosen to not do anything because it doesn’t want to displease China, retired Supreme Court associate justice Antonio Carpio said in an online forum.

In its running territorial tiff with China over the Natuna islands, Indonesia had just lobbed a diplomatic bombshell.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has downplayed the Feb. 17 incident in which a Chinese warship aimed a radar gun on a Philippine navy ship within Philippine waters, contradicting an earlier statement of the military.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III has told reporters that the Senate will be asking the Supreme Court Monday to rule on whether the president can unilaterally abrogate a treaty without the concurrence of the Senate that ratified the pact.

A Vietnamese academic pierced whatever illusion about the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea being worked out between ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and China and being coordinated by the Philippines.

A statement issued on New Year’s Day by the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs against alleged Chinese encroachments over the Indonesian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the Natunas may prove to be a diplomatic and legal game changer in the increasingly volatile South China Sea.