MANILA, Philippines — Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. lambasted China for lacking decency after he received a note from a Chinese official stating China’s position on the 2016 South China Sea Arbitration Award, during the Seoul Defense Dialogue on Tuesday.
The note says that the historic arbitral ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration won by the Philippines in 2016 that rejected China’s expansionist nine-dash line claims in the South China Sea “violates fundamental principles of international law.”
“The so-called award is illegal, null, and void,” the note said, according to Teodoro.
Teodoro, who represented Manila in the forum, said that the act ran against basic decency and respect not only for the Philippines but also for South Korea as host, and for the other participants of the dialogue.
“If this is a Chinese position sent to me, it not only disrespects international law, throwing the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to the floor and trampling upon it, but it also disrespects the basic decency that should be accorded to our most gracious host, the Republic of Korea, and the rest of our audience here,” Teodoro said.
Besides the Philippines, the four other original sovereign states legally recognized as archipelagic states under the 1982 UNCLOS are the Bahamas, Fiji, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea.
Teodoro said that smaller countries are often forced to rely on legacy defense mechanisms and coalitions with like-minded nations to counter aggression. He warned that “the threat of war becomes more imminent because of unconstrained and uncontrolled use of might versus right.”
“How can you deal with a country in an international forum beyond the question asked to me, disrespecting the organizers of this forum? How do you expect to deal with it civilly? I ask you this question, is this the right paper to pose to me when I'm being asked a question on the floor? And how will you treat this kind of behaviour? So perhaps, basic decency and behaviour is what China needs to do,” Teodoro added.
