China’s embassy in the Philippines yesterday urged the European Union to stop “provoking trouble” in the South China Sea, several days after Manila and Brussels announced the establishment of a new security and defense dialogue.
The dialogue was announced on June 2 during a visit by the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, who held talks with Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo about a wide range of issues, including the situation in the South China Sea.
“We urge the EU to genuinely respect China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea and to stop provoking trouble,” a Chinese embassy spokesperson said in a statement, Reuters reported. The statement also advised Manila not to “fantasize” about using outside powers to resolve its long-standing disputes with China.
Over the past three years, China and the Philippines have engaged in numerous standoffs over a handful of disputed shoals and islands inside Manila’s exclusive economic zone. Some of these have escalated into confrontations that have seen Philippine vessels rammed and doused with high-pressure water cannons. The Philippines has responded by strengthening its security cooperation with sympathetic partners, particularly its security ally, the United States, with which it has expanded joint exercises and patrols.
Yesterday, for instance, the U.S. and Philippine militaries held their seventh series of joint exercises in the South China Sea. The “maritime cooperative activity,” which took place in waters off the provinces of Occidental Mindoro and Zambales, far away from the recent confrontations with Chinese vessels, involved joint operations near shorelines and fire support.
In a statement quoted by Reuters, the Armed Forces of the Philippines described the exercises as “a demonstration of both nations’ resolve to deepen cooperation and enhance interoperability in line with international law.”
The EU has also moved to fortify its security ties to the Philippines, albeit in a more limited way than partners such as the U.S. and Japan. On June 2, during her visit to the Philippines, Kallas joined Manalo in announcing the establishment of a formal security and defense dialogue that will address a host of emerging threats, including maritime security challenges stemming from Beijing’s expansive claims.
In a joint statement issued after the meeting, the EU and the Philippines expressed their shared concerns about China’s “illegal, coercive, aggressive, and deceptive measures against Philippine vessels and aircraft conducting lawful maritime operations in the South China Sea.”
They also reaffirmed their commitment “to upholding international law, particularly UNCLOS [the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea] and the 2016 South China Sea Arbitration Award, which is final and binding.” The 2016 award, the outcome of a legal case filed by the Philippines in 2013, upheld most of Manila’s claims, ruling that China’s expansive claims to most of the South China Sea had no standing under UNCLOS.
Beijing has refused to recognize the ruling, describing it as “illegal, null, and void,” a line that the Chinese embassy spokesperson repeated in yesterday’s statement. The spokesperson added that the EU “was not a party to the South China Sea dispute and had no right to interfere in South China Sea disputes between China and the Philippines, let alone to make unwarranted accusations against China’s legitimate maritime activities,” according to a paraphrase in the state-run Global Times.