Macron assures Marcos of France's commitment to international maritime law
MANILA, Philippines — President Emmanuel Macron assured President Ferdinand Marcos in a phone call of France’s commitment to the Indo-Pacific region, particularly to international maritime law, according to a statement from the French presidential palace.
France is among many countries that have sailed the South China Sea in recent years to assert freedom of navigation in the waters that Beijing claims to be its territory using the nine-dash line that has been voided by an UNCLOS-backed tribunal in 2016.
China still does not recognize the arbitral award, which was the product of Manila’s suit against Beijing, and has warned countries against sailing what it calls its waters.
France has always been supportive of a legally binding code of conduct in the South China Sea, part of which is the West Philippine Sea.
Following the July 2016 ruling of an UNCLOS-backed tribunal that invalidated Beijing's expansive claims in the South China Sea, Paris stressed that it will continue to sail its ships in the contested waterway.
Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in 2019, French Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly declared that Paris will continue to sail more than twice a year in the South China Sea, addressing the issue with its own "steady, non-confrontational but obstinate way."
During the phone call, Macron and Marcos also agreed to continue to deepen exchanges in the fields of low-carbon energy, food security, defense and human exchanges. — Xave Gregorio with a report from Kaycee Valmonte
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