Germany backs arbitration in maritime dispute

BERLIN – German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed belief yesterday that the territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea could be settled through international arbitration.

The chancellor, together with President Aquino, was responding to a question about collective international action that could be taken immediately to reduce tensions in the West Philippine Sea amid observations that effective occupation was already happening in disputed and even in non-disputed areas.

Speaking to reporters after a bilateral meeting at the Federal Chancellery here, Aquino said he and the German leader shared the conviction that disputes must be settled peacefully and should be based on international law.

“As the President said right now, we share the concerns about the tensions arising in that particular part of the world and we believe in good, pragmatic approaches. But we also believe in solid, legal settlements of the disputes,” she said, adding that the “international dispute settlement arrangements that we have” based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is a “very good way forward in order to settle those differences.”

For his part, Aquino said the problem had been put on the back burner for far too long and that was the reason why, in the Philippines’ case, it opted for a resolution when asked if delaying international action would mean denying the realities on the ground that could affect global trade, freedom of navigation and even the emotions of people.

“We have been working through ASEAN to ensure that the Code of Conduct is formally and finally formulated. And also we are working through the United Nations offices specifically to address the arbitration issue we have brought up against China,” Aquino said.

“I guess what we can report is that from being on the back burner, this is at least in the consciousness of claimant-countries as well as the rest of the world. And therefore it is not a situation that can be ignored and it has to be confronted, and perhaps that will prod everybody to arrive at a solution based on international law, based out of justice and fairness,” Aquino said.

As to the role of Germany, Merkel said that whenever she visited China, she would also always talk to those in political responsibility there “about the approach that I think is one would be well-advised to take namely, that a peaceful approach and diplomatic approach is always the one that is called for.

“And I think that... Germany would be also well-advised to point to the fact that we have international bodies to settle such matters, for example the International Tribunal (for) the Law of the Sea,” she said.

“For example, we’ve had similar problems in Europe with Slovenia and others, where we – in Slovakia, where we said, well, we should embark on such roads where delimitation for example of borders has to be settled by arbitration. So that is the road that we would opt for,” Merkel said.