The Philippines announced on Monday that Acting Foreign Undersecretary Theresa Lazaro had summoned Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian after a Chinese navy ship was caught illegally “lingering” in Philippine waters.
In the latest diplomatic row between the two countries, the Dongdiao-class electronic reconnaissance ship allegedly entered and “lingered” for three days in the Sulu Sea from January 29 to February 1 without permission from Manila. The Chinese vessel then reached “the waters of Palawan’s Cuyo Group of Islands and Apo Island in Mindoro.” The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) claimed that the vessel ignored repeated orders to leave.
The Sulu Sea is an inland sea that lies between the islands of Mindanao and Palawan, and is the Philippines’ largest waterway.
Lazaro thus “demanded that China respect Philippine territory and maritime jurisdiction, and to comply with its obligations under international law, particularly UNCLOS, and direct its vessels to desist from entering Philippine waters uninvited and without permission,” the DFA said in a statement.
Accusing the vessel of “illegal intrusion” in its territorial waters, the DFA added that the vessel’s movements “did not follow a track that can be considered as continuous and expeditious, lingering in the Sulu Sea for three days.” “The actions of PLAN 792 did not constitute innocent passage and violated Philippine sovereignty,” it concluded.
However, the vessel’s management retorted that it was simply “exercising innocent passage” as it reached the Cuyo islands off Palawan and Apo island off Mindoro. The Chinese embassy in Manila has not commented on the matter yet.
‼️READ‼️ #DFAStatement: DFA Summons Chinese Ambassador for PLA Navy Vessel’s Illegal Intrusion and Lingering Presence in Philippine Archipelagic Waters
— DFA Philippines (@DFAPHL) March 14, 2022
Read full statement 👉🏻 https://t.co/Z8hC8WEZXh pic.twitter.com/B5yj7Tel1P
The two countries have historically clashed on matters relating to the passage and parking of each others’ vessels in waters both claim as their own.
In July 2016, the Arbitral Tribunal instituted under Annex VII of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) issued a binding ruling on China’s claims against the Philippines in the SCS.
The panel ruled that China’s claims of “historic” rights within the nine-dash line, which Beijing uses to outline its claims in the disputed South China Sea, were without legal foundation. It also found that Beijing’s activities, such as illegal fishing and the construction of environmentally harmful artificial islands, within the Philippines’ two-hundred-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and continental shelf violated Manila’s sovereign rights.
However, China dismissed the ruling as “nothing more than a piece of waste paper” and has since continued its aggressive provocations in the region, including imposing unilateral fishing bans in the region.
Although the Sulu Sea is separate from the South China Sea, the latest dispute marks yet another incident of Chinese aggression across the wider Indo-Pacific region.