FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo called on the international community to regard the South China Sea dispute as the country's quest to redeem its maritime identity, and not merely the site of a proxy war between superpowers China and the US.
FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo called on the international community to regard the South China Sea dispute as the country’s quest to redeem its maritime identity, and not merely the site of a proxy war between superpowers China and the US.
“Protecting our rights in our Exclusive Economic Zone and ensuring unimpeded access is critical for safeguarding the livelihoods of our fisherfolk and preserving marine resources vital to our future. Far more than the noise of politics, it must be understood as an issue about our maritime identity, our people and our future,” Manalo said in a speech at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada in Vancouver Tuesday.
Manalo is in Canada for a five-day official visit to further improve bilateral relations between Manila and Ottawa. He told the forum attended by foreign policy analysts and academicians that the heightened tension now between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea should not be diminished as an extension of the US-China rivalry.
“Philippines finds that over-characterizing developments in the South China Sea mainly as a function of the US-China strategic rivalry muddle understanding of the situation on the ground. For one, it places the legitimate rights and interests of countries like the Philippines aside, and secondary to the interests of rivals. It also obscures our judgment: actions that are clearly illegal in international law and against the UN Charter are sometimes justified under the pretext of this rivalry.
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