ASEAN, China to adopt communications protocol to ease tensions at disputed sea

President Duterte is scheduled to have at least nine bilateral meetings, apart from his talks with United States (US) President Barack Obama, on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Laos next week, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said that 11 heads of state had requested meetings with Duterte during the East Asia Summit, and he had said yes to nine of them, including with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

“The countries, total number of countries so 10 plus, I think we’re about 18 for the entire Summit, both the ASEAN and the dialogue partners,” said Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary for Office of ASEAN Affairs Ma. Hellen Dela Vega. “So I think 9, that’s 50 percent.”

To date, however, there is no scheduled meeting with Chinese Premier Li Kequiang who is always the one who represents China in ASEAN summits.

“I have no information that there will be a meeting, bilaterally with him,” said Dela Vega. “I’m not aware that there was any request from either side.”

No talks with UN chief

A meeting between Duterte and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon may not take place.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that “contacts were had to try to set up a time” for a meeting on the sidelines of the East Asia meeting in Laos next week, but that “no time could be agreed upon.”

“Please understand that he cannot accept them all and no one should impute any negatives on those he could not accommodate,” said Jose.

Duterte’s spokesman Ernesto Abella said the September 6-8 ASEAN meeting in Vientiane was “extraordinarily full” and that “a number of possible meetups have to be presently foregone.”

Duterte has launched several tirades against the world body after a UN special rapporteur criticized his crackdown on crime, even threatening to pull out of the United Nations, a threat he later withdrew.

“Maybe, we’ll just have to decide to separate from the United Nations. If you are that disrespectful, son of a whore, then I will just leave you,” Duterte said in a press conference last month.

He later said the threat was just a “joke.”

Duterte prepared for talks

But Duterte is coming prepared for his meeting with Obama on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit on September 6, the DFA said.

“I think the President is prepared,” said Dela Vega during the pre-departure media briefing for the East Asia Summit in Laos held in Malacañang yesterday.

“That’s why his first statement is to ask President Obama to listen to him. So he can discuss and explain to him the problem that we face as far as the drug problem is concerned. So I think he’s prepared for it.”

Dela Vega pointed out that during his meeting with President Obama, the talking points will revolve around the results of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Ministerial Meeting last July.

Nearly 2,000 people have been killed since Duterte was sworn into office on June 30 and immediately launched his war on crime, according to the national police chief.

Duterte has insisted most of the 756 people confirmed killed by police were drug suspects who resisted arrest, while the others died due to gang members waging warfare against each other.

However, human rights groups, some lawmakers, and other critics have said security forces are engaging in unprecedented extrajudicial killings.

Avoiding clashes

In the Laos meeting, Southeast Asian countries and China will establish hotlines and adopt communications protocols to avoid potential naval clashes in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, the DFA said.

The protocols will be signed in Laos next week, when heads of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meet with leaders from other regional powers – China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, India, Russia and the United States – for a three day summit.

The mechanism, called the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES), would be new for both ASEAN and China, Dela Vega told a news conference.

“It’s one way of de-escalating tensions in the South China Sea,” she said, adding that hotlines between China and the ASEAN governments would be established.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea where about $5-trillion sea-borne trade passes annually. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam also have claims on parts of the sea, which is believed to have rich deposits of oil and gas.

“This is very important because any accident that can lead to a major confrontation will be avoided if our navies and coast guards are communicating with each other,” a senior Philippines navy commander told Reuters.

He said there had been instances in the past when Chinese vessels had not responded to radio and signal communications when they had been encountered by a Philippine Navy ship.

Regardless of this agreement, the United States, Japan, and Australia are expected to call on China to respect and comply with the ruling of the arbitration court in The Hague in July.

The court infuriated Beijing by ruling that China had no historical title over the South China Sea and it had breached the Philippines’ sovereign rights.

Duterte said he will be raising the arbitral ruling but will champion other issues, like ridding Southeast Asia of narcotics, clamping down on human trafficking, and protection for migrant workers.

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by ROY C. MABASA, AFP, and Reuters

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