Occupation of reef won't lead to conflict: Philippines
Occupation of reef won't lead to conflict: Philippines
MANILA (Reuter): The Philippines said yesterday that China's occupation of a reef in parts of the South China Sea claimed by Manila would not lead to conflict.
"Aggression is not an option and I believe that at this point there is some agreement between us and the People's Republic of China," Foreign Secretary Roberto Romulo said.
The Philippines released pictures on Thursday showing military-looking Chinese vessels and substantial structures built on stilts above Mischief Reef in the islands known in the Philippines as the Kalayaan (Freedom) group.
Even if the Philippines wanted to push China off Mischief Reef, it has virtually no ability to project military power beyond its major islands.
"It is not going to lead to any clash because there is no capacity on this side to do anything about it," a western military diplomat said.
China, pushing aside Philippine President Fidel Ramos's complaint that Beijing is breaking international law, has claimed the structures were built to shelter its fishermen.
Manila has little option but to take its complaints to its five partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and try to raise other international support.
United States ambassador John Negroponte called on China and the Philippines to solve the dispute peacefully.
"We fully support the Manila Declaration of 1992 that calls on all parties to settle this issue through peaceful means and, meanwhile, to exercise restraint," he told reporters after meeting Romulo.
The Manila Declaration urged the six nations which claim all or parts of the Spratlys' scattered isles and reefs -- China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and the Philippines -- to settle the long-running dispute peacefully.
Flash points
The Spratly Islands are possibly rich in oil and minerals and have long been regarded as one of the most serious potential flash points in Asia. Efforts by Indonesia to mediate a settlement have failed to make much progress.
Julius Caesar Parreno, an analyst at the rightwing Center for Research and Communication, said he did not believe China's action would lead to aggression because it was in Beijing's interest to develop good relations with ASEAN, particularly when Vietnam joins the group this year.
ASEAN groups Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines.
China and Vietnam clashed in the Spratlys in 1988. Beijing claims virtually all the islands of the South China Sea as its ancestral territory and has slowly pushed its forces south and east as it has developed its blue-water navy.
Like other claimants who have small garrisons in the islands, it has long maintained a presence in the region claimed by Manila. But the Mischief Reef structures are the closest it has built to the Philippine island of Palawan.
Western and Filipino analysts in Manila poured scorn on China's assertion that the four structures at Mischief Reef are fishing-related.
They said the buildings constructed on platforms above the reef, which is submerged at high tide, were very similar to installations on other Chinese-claimed islands where it has deployed military personnel.
"It clearly appears semi-permanent and that it has been put there for longer-term purposes," the diplomat said.