VIETNAM and the Philippines have agreed to urge China to respect a legally-binding Code of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea to ease the tensions there as a result of the overlapping claims to the area, Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay said Thursday.
President Rodrigo Duterte, meanwhile, urged Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang to consider importing products from Philippines.
“We agreed to fully implement the Declaration of Conduct that was approved and signed by all Asean members in 2002, and to proceed with the coming out of a code of conduct,” Yasay told reporters in Hanoi.
“The Vietnamese and Philippine positions on the handling of the dispute on the South China Sea are convergent. There is no conflict.
“The position of Vietnam and China and the Philippines is solidly in line with the Asean’s position on the matter.”
China claims virtually the entire South China Sea and has continued its building activities in the area, but the UN-backed arbitral tribunal rejected its claims in July this year after the Philippines brought the case before it.
Yasay said the Philippines and Vietnam agreed to proceed with bilateral engagements with China as the arbitral tribunal had no enforcement mechanisms to bind China following the decision.
“The enforcement and implementation of the arbitral tribunal’s decision will have to be pursued and made by the claimants themselves to their own agreements,” he said.
Meanwhile, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said the Philippines would be pushing to export more products to Vietnam to correct its trade imbalance with that country since Vietnam is the source of more than 48 percent of its rice imports.
“The President himself asked for cooperation from the Vietnam people to consider importing more products from Philippines to improve the trade balance,” Lopez said.