Philippines says open to talks with China on S. China Sea ruling. Manila and Beijing committed to each other not to take "provocative actions."

The Philippines is open to discussions with China on implementing the landmark decision by a U.N.-backed arbitral tribunal on the South China Sea dispute involving the two countries among others, Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay said Wednesday.

A day after the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague issued its stunning ruling invalidating China's "nine-dash line" by which Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, Yasay told a radio interview that the Philippine government "will be formulating the succeeding steps in making sure that the decision...will be peacefully implemented."

"We are open to making sure that we will have bilateral talks with China in the implementation of this decision of the arbitral tribunal," Yasay said.

Aside from striking down China's claim to sovereignty over the resource-rich body of water that is also an important route of international trade, the five-member tribunal also found some features in the South China Sea being claimed by China as actually being within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines.

The ruling also said China violated the Philippines' sovereign rights by interfering with Philippine fishing and petroleum exploration, construction of artificial islands, and destruction of marine environment.

In a statement issued Wednesday, former President Benigno Aquino, under whose term the arbitration case was filed, suggested that "instead of viewing this decision as a victory of one party over another, the best way to look at this judgment is that, it is a victory for all."

"I say this because the clarity rendered now establishes better conditions that enable countries to engage each other, bearing in mind their duties and rights within a context that espouses equality and amity," Aquino, who ended his six year-term on June 30, said.

"Without doubt, this long-running dispute is now closer to having a permanent solution," he added.

Acknowledging and thanking the efforts of the Aquino administration "in making sure that we get this kind of ruling by our arbitral tribunal," Yasay said the next step is to "move forward and let diplomacy reign."

"Now is the time for diplomacy to reign again, to make sure that our diplomatic options and initiatives will not be prevented or undermined, so that we can peacefully implement the decision of the arbitral tribunal," he said.

• Yasay disclosed that even before the decision was issued, Manila and Beijing committed to each other not to take "provocative actions."

• Asked on the particular impact of the decision on Filipino fishermen who were previously barred by China at the Scarborough Shoal, which lies just 124 nautical miles from the coast of Philippine main island of Luzon, Yasay said: "Now, I think, there is no basis for anyone to prevent fishermen from fishing, to continue fishing in these traditional fishing grounds."

Yasay, who is a lawyer by training, said that based on his understanding of the decision, Scarborough Shoal has been declared as "a common fishing ground of fishermen, including from the Philippines, Vietnam and China."

"So, my understanding of this decision is, it's important for us to immediately have an agreement with countries concerned how to mutually benefit in so far as these fishing grounds are concerned," Yasay said.

Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said there are plans for consultations with member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on what steps the Philippines should take in light of the ruling.

"The community of nations, the ASEAN, has supported us in our pleading," Lorenzana, a retired military official, said while highlighting that the landmark decision affects not just the Philippines but other claimant countries as well.

"It is not only the Philippines who is affected by that ruling. It is like everyone is included," he said.

Lorenzana said that with regard to Philippine forces in the disputed areas, the status quo is currently being maintained to avoid actions that could be deemed provocative by China, citing the postponement of resupply missions for forces in the disputed areas.

The Philippines filed the arbitration case against China in January 2013 to seek clarification of its maritime entitlements in the South China Sea under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, following China's aggressive assertion of its claims there. Both the Philippines and China are signatories to the convention.

The Philippines noted China's seizure in 1995 of Mischief Reef, which is only 126 nautical miles from the Philippine island province of Palawan.

Years later, it prevented the Philippines from carrying out oil and gas exploration activities within the country's 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone, expelled fishermen from Scarborough Shoal starting 2012, and accelerated its massive land reclamation activities in a number of the disputed reefs.

Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, and Taiwan also have overlapping claims in the South China Sea.
==Kyodo
 13/7/16
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