Ayungin arrangement will be honored, Manalo says after meeting China FM

Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the ministerial meeting in Laos and both affirmed that a recently agreed arrangement in resupply missions in Ayungin Shoal will be honored, diplomatic sources told GMA News Online.

The Philippines conducted a rotation and reprovisioning mission to the BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal on Saturday and "no untoward incident was reported," a Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) statement said.

The mission utilized the civilian vessel MV Lapu-Lapu, escorted by Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) vessel BRP Cape Engaño.

During their meeting Friday night in the Laos capital of Vientiane, Manalo and Wang restated that the provisional arrangement at Ayungin, also known as Second Thomas Shoal, will not prejudice the territorial position of the Philippines and China in the South China Sea.

Manila uses the name West Philippine Sea for areas in the South China Sea that is within its territory.

"We would honor the provisional agreement in a clear and sincere effort to defuse tensions and try and prevent any incidents of course from leading to further tension in our relationship," diplomatic sources quoted Manalo as saying.

"Most importantly, we also acknowledged that the provisional agreement will not prejudice our respective positions on our claims in the South China Sea," sources said.

The meeting of Manalo and Wang—the highest level since the June 17 violent confrontation between the Chinese Coast Guard and the Philippine Navy in Ayungin Shoal—was reportedly initiated by China, the sources said.

Last Sunday, the DFA announced that the Philippines and China have reached an understanding on an arrangement that would avoid altercations at Ayungin Shoal.

Both sides laid out a set of mutually agreed principles and arrangement at the shoal through an exchange of diplomatic notes, diplomatic sources told GMA News Online.

It was an offshoot of a crucial high-level meeting in Manila on July 2, called the Bilateral Consultation Mechanism (BCM), held two weeks after the June 17 incident.

The Philippines occupies the shoal, which is within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and continental shelf but China also claims it.

In the June 17 confrontation, the Chinese Coast Guard blocked, harassed, and attacked Filipino navy personnel while bringing food and other supplies for a small Philippine contingent guarding the shoal, where a rusting World War II-era vessel was deliberately grounded by Manila in 1998.

Several Filipinos were injured, including one who lost his right thumb.

Recent confrontations at Ayungin and other areas in the South China Sea have sparked fears of more dangerous unplanned encounters that may escalate to a full-blown conflict that would involve the United States, Manila's treaty ally.

A vital trading and shipping lane, the South China Sea, dotted with rocks, shoals and reefs where rich oil and mineral deposits were found, are claimed in part or in whole by the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan.

The Philippines largely won a landmark case against China's massive claim in the South China Sea before an arbitration tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, but Beijing does not recognize the ruling.

In Laos, ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) welcomed in their draft communique "the adoption of the Guidelines for Accelerating the Early Conclusion of an Effective and Substantive Code of Conduct in the South China Sea adopted at the PMC (Post-Ministerial Conference) Plus One Session with China on 13 July 2023."

No details of the guidelines were indicated in the communique seen by GMA News Online. China and the ASEAN have been negotiating such a code of conduct for years in a bid to have some agreed rules to better manage and avoid conflicts in the disputed waters. — VDV, GMA Integrated News