PCA verdict encourages the settlement of maritime disputes via international arbitration

Friday, July 15, 2016 | 18:38:36

(VOVworld) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Thursday that he will send former President Fidel Ramos to China for talks after the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ruled against Beijing's claims to most of the disputed East Sea.

PCA verdict encourages the settlement of maritime disputes via international arbitration - ảnh 1

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte (File photo: EPA/FRANCIS R. MALASIG)

Addressing a college meeting, President Duterte said war is not an option and he wants to pursue peaceful talks, noting that

he had consulted many people, including Mr. Ramos, and made the offer to former President Ramos to go to China to start the talks. He didn’t mention an exact date.

The same day, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported that China’s coast guard had prevented Philippine fishermen from approaching the contested Scarborough Shoal in the East Sea despite the PCA ruling.

Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said all parties should strictly abide by the principle of not using violence and seeking a diplomatic solution based on international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Two days after the PCA issued its ruling in the case brought by the Philippines against China’s nine-dash line claim in the East Sea, Greg Polin, Director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, described the PCA verdict as an encouragement to resolve maritime disputes by peaceful measures and through international arbitration.

In an interview with Vietnam News Agency’s correspondent in Washington, Polin said the most important point in the PCA’s ruling is that the court rejected China’s claims of historical rights to waters within the so-called nine-dash line, which means the line is legally invalid.

Polin said the ruling, at least, presents a legal framework for all countries involved to make their claims.

The daily South German Newspaper reported on Thursday that China is pressuring several EU countries like Greece, Cyprus, and Croatia not to make similar statements about the PCA ruling. According to the paper, the EU has been trying to find a common point of view on the issue.