CEBU: The Asean as a regional body is committed in ensuring freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said.
This comes as Southeast Asian leaders convened and adopted the Maritime Cooperation Agreement, which proposed the establishment of an Asean Maritime Center in the Philippines.
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“I suppose as the situation in the South China Sea becomes more, shall we say, unreadable, this becomes more important that there will be a central repository for maritime issues and maritime policy that will apply to Asean members,” Marcos told reporters in a briefing on the sidelines of the summit.
Marcos was quick to clarify that the move was not to push back on China.
“What we are looking for, or what is the ultimate reason for having this Maritime Center is not to confront or not to somehow push back on any single force or any single country,” he said.
“It has to be seen from this perspective. What we are working for is the continued freedom of navigation and the peaceful navigation in South China Sea,” the President added.
The Asean Chair stressed that the South China Sea remains as a vital trading route in the world, to the region must ensure peaceful voyages within the waters.
“As we all know, a large percentage of world trade goes through the South China Sea. And as has been demonstrated by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz – the Strait of Hormuz is 20% of the entire oil supply of the world. And we are all very aware of the effects of that,” Marcos said.
“But if such a thing would happen in the South China Sea, the inevitable consequences would be alarming, just to even think about,” he said.
Over the years, the situation in the South China Sea has been tense, with aggression often seen in disputed territories.
“And so that is the point of that Maritime Center. And then of course there is the attendant issues of assistance of making sure that our waters are safe, that our territories are well respected, and that UNCLOS is the single most important guide and principle that we adhere to,” Marcos told reporters.
The President said he is optimistic that the establishment of the Center will push through because it received no opposition from the leaders.
“The discussions that we had progressed very, very quickly. There was a very wide consensus amongst members of the things that need to be done and how we need to do it. Since we proposed the idea, we are offering the Philippines to be the home of that centre,” he said.
However, Marcos was unable to provide a timeline as to when the center will be operational.
“The job before us is to put together the framework for what is this Maritime Center going to look like, who will be involved and what their involvement will be, who will fund it, where will it be, what is it supposed to do in the first place. And all of those questions have yet to be answered,” he said.
“So, again, this is a new concept. And that’s why we still have to put the structure in place, the framework in place. We have to put the vision, mission in place,” Marcos added.
The Maritime Center, he said, is envisioned to monitor maritime developments within the South China Sea, even identifying of there are illegal acts being done within its waters.
“How the Maritime Center is going to be structured so that we are able to do the things that we hope for it to do, which is maintain safety in the South China Sea, maintain the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, maintain order in the South China Sea, monitor the ships, which one is going where, where there’s illegal fishing, for example, where they’re using sea routes for smuggling, for human trafficking. All of those things put together,” Marcos said.
Marcos said that all maritime countries around the South China Sea are already monitoring the maritime activities individually, and what they hope to achieve is to make all these monitoring cohesive.
“The idea of the Maritime Center is to make a cohesive organization that will put together all the efforts of all the different countries, Asean and even other countries outside of Asean, who have an interest, who are stakeholders, put it together so that we are working together with one another, helping each other, and hopefully achieve some kind of – we are able to put together all our efforts so that there are no gaps in what we are trying to do, there is no duplication of work, and again, we maintain the peace in the South China Sea,” Marcos said.
