<\/p>\n
PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. brought the issue of the South China Sea before Viet Nam Tuesday, pointing out the country\u2019s sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea under international laws.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n During his meeting with Viet Nam Prime Minister Pham Minh Ching, Marcos said the Philippine government will continue defending WPS through peaceful dialogues and consultations with claimants, including China.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe are firm in defending our sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction against any provocations. But at the same time, we are also seeking to address these issues with China through peaceful dialogue and consultations as two equal sovereign states,\u201d President Marcos said.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Marcos reiterated that the Philippine position in the WPS remains consistent, clear, and firmly anchored in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The chief executive recalled his state visit to China in 2023 where he reaffirmed with Chinese President Xi Jinping that maritime issues should not define the relations between the Philippines and China, and that the two countries should work to enhance comprehensive strategic cooperation.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n However, China appears to continue its illegal activities in the WPS, Marcos said, citing the December 9 and 10 incidents last year where Chinese Coast Guard and Chinese militia used water cannons that led to the damage of Philippine vessels in the Bajo de Masinloc and Ayungin Shoal, respectively.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n President Marcos said President Xi, during their meeting on the sidelines of the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting in November last year, had agreed on the importance of de-escalating tensions in the WPS.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe are committed to work in partnership with other like-minded states to ensure a rules-based international order in the Asia-Pacific region governed by international law.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Our support for ASEAN centrality and the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific as the foremost regional framework and as the architecture for collective peace, stability and prosperity remains steadfast,\u201d President Marcos said.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAs maritime nations, we share a similar assessment of the current state of our regional environment with other maritime nations of the Asia-Pacific. Our countries have crucial roles to play in shaping the regional security discourse and in upholding the rules-based international order,\u201d he added.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n President Marcos highlighted the Philippines\u2019 stance on the WPS during his meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Ching, where he also raised the country\u2019s stand on regional and international issues including the Philippines\u2019 independent foreign policy.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n He said that the Philippines considers both the United States and China as key actors in maintaining peace and security, economic growth and development in the ASEAN region as he emphasized that the US is the Philippines\u2019 sole treaty ally.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAnd as such, we continue to pursue military cooperation with the US to strengthen our defensive capability and our ability to respond to humanitarian crises and disasters, \u201d he emphasized.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. brought the issue of the South China Sea before Viet Nam Tuesday, pointing out the country’s sovereign rights over the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3565"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3567,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3565\/revisions\/3567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}