BEIJING is making no attempt to change the status quo amid its reported militarization and construction of artificial islands and facilities in the disputed South China Sea, Chinese President Xi Jinping told President Rodrigo Duterte as they vowed to uphold freedom of navigation in the crucial waterways.
Speaking to reporters on his arrival from the 2017 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Da Nang, Vietnam, Duterte said Xi gave him “specific answers” to his queries about China’s intentions in the disputed waters.
He made statement even as international security experts sounded the alarm over what they said was the lackluster future of an all-important code of conduct on the West Philippine Sea.
“Those negotiations, if they begin”•and they haven’t”•would still take years,” said Gregory Poling, director of Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the sidelines of the Stratbase ADR Institute summit on “Asean Leadership amid a new world order” held recently in Makati.
“What I expect is that the disappointments that [are] going to be obvious after this year might finally kick Asean states into gear, make them realize that they need to think of a different venue to get this done.”
Duterte said Xi had assured him that the increasing militarization in the South China Sea was “nothing.”
“I was talking about the military buildup, he says ‘no, it’s nothing’,” Duterte said.
“He knows that if he goes to war, everything will blow up. He acknowledged that war cannot be promoted by anybody, but it would only mean destruction for all of us.”
Duterte said he believed Xi’s explanation “because, like me, he’s worried about the health and the problem of his countrymen.”
He said Xi had assured him that China would not impede the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
“Do not worry, you have all the rights of safe passage. That will be applicable to all countries,” Duterte quoted Xi as saying.
Duterte met with Xi on Saturday along with his top Cabinet officials in a bilateral meet held at the Da Nang Crowne Plaza Hotel.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, who joined Duterte and other members of the Cabinet in his talks with Xi, said both tackled the issue on the freedom of navigation since everyone “would be sailing from the Indian Ocean through the West Philippine Sea” and there was a need for unhampered navigation.
In his remarks, Duterte claimed Xi expressed surprise over the country’s stronger and more assertive tone in discussing the maritime dispute amid the much-stronger statement issued by the Asean ministers in August.
“He was quite surprised by my coming in very strong, of my statement about the [Code of] Conduct in the [South China] Sea. I said I’m not raising any sovereign issue, do not worry, but I said as [Asean] chairman, I was made a channel of the communications, to be active,” Duterte said.
“I had to do it because the Philippines chairs Asean, I cannot escape from that duty. I had every right to ask him. But I explained it to him in a very nice way that’s all there is to it.”
Duterte said Xi likewise appeared to have jested that Manila was siding with another country, then responding that he only made such pronouncements since the Philippines was this year’s rotating chairman of the Asean.
“We were joking. ‘You like the other one better.’ I said ‘No. We look upon you as a country with honor. I’m just trying to perform my duty as chairman,” Duterte said.
He said the Philippines remained to be a good friend of China despite the ongoing territorial tussle over the disputed waters.
Before leaving to attend the APEC meeting, Duterte said he would raise the supposed militarization in the South China Sea, since the Aseam was quite aware of Beijing’s militarization in the disputed waters.
Duterte also said he would not be asking for any military assistance from Washington to help wage war against Beijing.
The Asean is now negotiating a code of conduct in the South China Sea between Asean and Beijing, a legally binding document expected to resolve matters of dispute between and among countries.