'Worsening of South China Sea dispute farfetched'

MANILA, Philippines -  The visiting US permanent representative to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) downplayed yesterday a likelihood of worsening dispute in the South China Sea that will require Washington to apply the US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty to the territorial dispute.

Ambassador David Carden, the first US resident representative to ASEAN based in Jakarta, said such situation is “farfetched.”

He reiterated the US position on the need for ASEAN to have a mechanism in place to address all of the disputes and claimants’ needs in the South China Sea and also to bring in stakeholders including those beyond the region such as the US.

“I think we are far, far away from any such situation. It will never arise,” Carden said in a press briefing at the Department of Foreign Affairs following a meeting with DFA Undersecretary for Policy Erlinda Basilio.

“I think what we are to focus on is the resolution of claims that people have and move forward,” he said.

For her part, Basilio said the Philippines is hopeful that the joint working group on the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) will be able to finalize the guidelines for the implementation of the DOC.

“We are crafting guidelines for the implementation of the Declaration and the Conduct of State Parties in the South China Sea and I hope our working group will be able to arrive at a consensus together with China on the provisions of the guidelines and hopefully to start discussing the draft regional code of conduct,” Basilio said.

She stressed that the declaration also envisions the crafting of a regional Code of Conduct for peace and stability in the South China Sea.

“We believe that international laws such as the Convention and the Law of the Sea is the legal basis for all our actions and we should be observant of all the provisions of this particular convention,” she said.

American think tank Heritage Foundation said the concept of “strategic ambiguity” could help protect the Philippines and achieve peace and stability in the South China Sea.

Walter Lohman, director of The Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center, said in his policy research “South China Sea: Make the Chinese Guess” that the United States needs to introduce some uncertainty into Chinese calculations on the issue of the South China Sea. – With Jellica Syril Ignacio