THE PHILIPPINES’ top envoy will meet together with his Malaysian and Thai counterparts this week to debate regional issues and seek deeper bilateral ties, in accordance with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
In an announcement, the agency said Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique A. Manalo and Malaysian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dato Seri Utama Jahi Mohammad Bin Haji Hasan will meet on the Eight Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday to debate “matters of mutual interest to each countries and the Southeast Asian region.”
“The reconvening of the JCM manifests the deepening of the friendship between the 2 countries, in addition to the expansion of areas of bilateral cooperation,” DFA said.
The meeting is a consultation and cooperation mechanism used to tackle pressing bilateral and regional issues, it said.
This comes after Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. urged Southeast Asian leaders and China at a regional summit in Laos on Thursday to hurry up talks on a code of conduct for the South China Sea.
The thought of a maritime code was first agreed between China and ASEAN in 2002, however the strategy of creating it didn’t start until 2017.
A United Nations-backed tribunal within the Hague in 2016 voided China’s expansive claims within the South China Sea, because it ruled Scarborough Shoal is a conventional fishing ground for Filipino, Chinese and Vietnamese fishermen. China has controlled the shoal since 2012.
The Philippines has been unable to implement the ruling and has since filed lots of of protests over what it calls encroachment and harassment by China’s coast guard and its vast fishing fleet.
Meanwhile, Mr. Manalo may also meet with Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs Maris Sangiampongsa in Bangkok on Oct. 18 for a separate dialogue about regional and bilateral issues.
The mechanism would “facilitate cooperation and consultation between the Philippines and Thailand on a wide selection of problems with bilateral and regional concern,” DFA said in a separate statement.
Through the Thai diplomat’s visit to Manila in July, he said Thailand was able to help the Philippines and China peacefully resolve their sea dispute and ease tensions within the waterway.
Apart from the Philippines and China, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam even have claims to parts of the South China Sea.
The Philippines’ Bureau of Fisheries late Monday said a Chinese maritime militia boat had deliberately sideswiped one in every of its two vessels that were conducting routine maritime patrols near Thitu Island on Friday.
US Marines and Filipino troops on Monday kicked off their yearly Kamandag joint military drills that will likely be held on the principal Luzon island, Metro Manila and Palawan province, the US Defense department’s Defense Visual Information Distribution Service said in an announcement.
The exercises aim to spice up interoperability between the troops through coastal defense, combat medicine and humanitarian assistance drills, it added.
The Philippines is ready to take the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2026, where it seeks to lift its sea row with China.
Last 12 months, Mr. Marcos said Manila would take over the regional bloc’s chairmanship in 2026 because the country goals to “fortify the foundations of our community-building and navigate ASEAN because it embarks on a brand new chapter.”
“It’s regrettable that the general situation within the South China Sea stays tense and unchanged,” he told Southeast Asian leaders on the Laos summit, based on an announcement from his office. “We proceed to be subjected to harassment and intimidation.” — John Victor D. Ordoñez
