SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) — Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on Wednesday (July 13) urged China and the Philippines to follow the South China Sea Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling.
In a case that was seen as a test of China’s rising power and its economic and strategic rivalry with the United States, the court in The Hague ruled China had breached the Philippines’ sovereign rights by endangering its ships and fishing and oil projects in the energy-rich region.
“We have no position on the competing claims to sovereignty, we have no claims of our own, but we insist that it is absolutely vital that all countries abide by international law, settle disputes peacefully and in the context of this particular dispute,” Turnbull told reporters in Canberra. “That both countries abide by the decision of the tribunal.”
“As I’ve said many times, every nation in our region has benefited enormously from the many, many decades of relative peace and tranquility in this region and it is vital that that is maintained. There is so much at risk in the event of conflict, in the event of heightened tensions,” he added.
Bishop echoed Turnbull’s call for peace, and called on both countries to “respect” the outcome. “It is final, it is binding and now it gives deep clarity on the international law as applicable to the South China Sea,” she said.
The ruling is significant as it is the first time that a legal challenge has been brought in the dispute. The court has no power of enforcement, but a victory for the Philippines could spur Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei to file similar cases on their claims to the waters.
China’s Foreign Ministry has rejected the tribunal’s ruling, saying its people had more than 2,000 years of history in the South China Sea, that its islands did have exclusive economic zones and that it had announced to the world its “dotted line” map in 1948. The Philippines has so far reacted cautiously to the ruling, calling for “restraint and sobriety”.