Philippines seeks to craft South China Sea code of conduct with neighbors

Reuters

The Philippines has approached neighbors such as Malaysia and Vietnam to discuss a separate code of conduct for the South China Sea, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in November 2023, citing limited progress toward striking a broader regional pact with the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Speaking in Hawaii, where he also visited the headquarters of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, Marcos said escalating tension in the disputed waterway — a vital route for global trade — required the Philippines to partner with allies and neighbors to maintain peace, with the situation “more dire.”

Marcos increasingly has cited Beijing’s “aggressive” behavior, while reaffirming strong ties with the U.S., the Philippines’ sole treaty ally.

“We are still waiting for the code of conduct between China and ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] and the progress has been rather slow unfortunately,” he said.

“We have taken the initiative to approach those other countries around ASEAN with whom we have existing territorial conflicts, Vietnam being one of them, Malaysia being another, and to make our own code of conduct,” Marcos said. “Hopefully this will grow further and extend to other ASEAN countries.”

The embassies of Malaysia, the PRC and Vietnam in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Marcos’ remarks came days after his meeting with Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in San Francisco, California. The leaders discussed ways to reduce tension in the South China Sea after a series of confrontations, including Chinese coast guard ships harassing and ramming Philippine vessels conducting supply missions to troops stationed at Second Thomas Shoal.

In recent years, ASEAN and the PRC have sought to create a framework to negotiate a code of conduct, a plan dating as far back as 2002. But progress has been slow despite commitments by all parties to accelerate the process.

Talks on components of the code have not begun, with concerns about how much Beijing, which claims most of the strategic waterway as its territory, is committed to a binding set of rules that ASEAN members want to align with international law.

An international tribunal in 2016 dismissed the PRC’s claims as legally invalid, but Beijing has continued to encroach on the maritime exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of other nations, including Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

The PRC has become more assertive in pressing its rejected claims by militarizing submerged reefs and artificial maritime features with radar, runways and missile systems, including some inside the Philippines’ EEZ.

“The nearest reefs that the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] has started to show interest in … for building bases, have come closer and closer to the Philippine coastline,” Marcos said. “The situation has become more dire than it was before.”

Marcos noted that the U.S. “has always been behind us … not only in terms of rhetoric, but also in terms of concrete support.”