MANILA, Philippines — The United Kingdom will work with the Philippines amid the territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea as it vowed to work with “all partners interested in maintaining” the 2016 arbitral ruling in the contested waters.
UK Ambassador to the Philippines Laure Beaufils said this Monday following her courtesy call on President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in Mandaluyong City.
“The UK’s also a maritime region and we’re really focused on international law, international maritime law in particular, and UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea),” Beaufils told the media when asked how the UK will help the Philippines temper China’s militarism in the South China Sea.
UNCLOS is an international agreement that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities.
“We’ve been working very closely with the Philippines in the past and we’ll continue to do so to support maritime law through training, but also through joint exercises,” she added.
Beaufils added that they will “continue to work with all partners interested in maintaining” the international maritime law, including a 2016 decision by The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration that favored the Philippines’ diplomatic protest against China’s claims in the South China Sea.
“We’ll continue to work with all partners interested in maintaining the international maritime law and UNCLOS and the 2016 arbitral award as we move forward in the years to come,” Beaufils said.
READ: UK, Australia push for respect for rule of law, Hague ruling
In 2013, the Philippines, under the Aquino administration, challenged in the Hague court China’s claim that it owned more than 80 percent of the South China Sea, which includes waters in the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
In 2016, two weeks after President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office, the tribunal ruled that China’s claim had no basis in international law and that it had violated the Philippines’ sovereign right to fish and explore resources in the West Philippine Sea, the waters within the country’s 370-km exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea.
Just last week, Marcos Jr. said he would uphold the said ruling under his term.
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