The Philippines is committed to working with China to develop “confidence-building measures” to manage tensions in the South China Sea following last week’s clash that seriously injured a Filipino sailor, the archipelago’s foreign minister said on Sunday. Tuesday (25).
“We still believe that the primacy of dialogue is and that diplomacy must prevail even in the face of these serious incidents, although, of course, I admit that it is also a challenge”, said the secretary of the ministry, Enrique Manalo, at a hearing in the Senate.
Whatever measures the Philippines agrees to, Manalo said, will not come at the expense of its sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction in the South China Sea.
“We are not blind to the incidents that are happening,” he added.
The Foreign Ministry lodged a diplomatic protest against China’s “illegal and aggressive” actions during a routine resupply mission on June 17, in which the Philippine military said the Chinese seriously injured a navy personnel and damaged ships. from the country.
China contested the Philippines’ version, with its Foreign Ministry stating that the actions taken by its coast guard were necessary, legal and irreproachable.
Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, who echoed President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s statement that the country does not aim to instigate wars, praised Philippine troops for exercising restraint and preventing the incident from escalating further.
“A shot in anger could have triggered something that, fortunately, due to the superior training of the troops, was not done, did not happen,” Teodoro said at the same Senate hearing.
China’s embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea with its so-called nine-dash line, which overlaps the exclusive economic zones of rival claimants Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
A 2016 arbitration court ruling, which Beijing does not recognize, invalidated China’s claim to the strategic waters.
Source: CNN Brasil
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