The Philippines won’t raise its recent arbitration victory against Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea during Asian summit talks that it will host this year, Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. said Wednesday. Yasay said pressing last year’s ruling at the annual meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations “is just simply counter-productive.” The Philippines intends to raise the ruling, which invalidated China’s historic claims under a 1982 U. N. treaty, in bilateral talks with Beijing in the future, Yasay said, stressing that the arbitration decision is final and won’t be changed by discussions at international conferences. “We are not going to raise this issue … because there is really no useful benefit,” Yasay said at a news conference. “This is a matter that we will be raising with China at some future time in bilateral talks and to do and involve others in the discussion of this decision is just simply counter-productive for our purposes.” “Now if any country would like to pursue their respective claims against China with respect to a disputed territory in the South China Sea, they can do so and perhaps use the decision of the arbitral tribunal as a precedent-setting case in pursuing the matter,” he said.
