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Marcos Jr earlier summoned Beijing’s envoy to precise ‘critical concern’ over China’s harassment of a Philippine ship.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has stated that his nation “won’t lose an inch” of territory, remarks that come on the heels of tensions with Beijing in the South China Sea this week that noticed China’s ambassador in Manila summoned to the president’s workplace.
“The nation has seen heightened geopolitical tensions that don’t conform to our beliefs of peace and threaten the safety and stability of the nation, of the area and of the world,” Marcos Jr stated in a speech on Saturday.
“This nation won’t lose an inch of its territory,” he stated.
“We are going to proceed to uphold our territorial integrity and sovereignty in accordance with our structure and with worldwide legislation. We are going to work with our neighbours to safe the protection and safety of our peoples,” he added.
On Tuesday, Marcos Jr summoned the Chinese language ambassador to precise his “critical concern” over harassment by the Chinese coastguard of a Philippine Coast Guard vessel in addition to Filipino fishermen within the South China Sea.
The Philippine international and defence ministries had stated that the Chinese language vessel used a “military-grade laser” in opposition to the Philippine Coast Guard ship, which was on a mission to resupply troops based mostly in Second Thomas Shoal, which is called Ayungin Shoal within the Philippines.
The laser had quickly blinded the Philippine crew on the bridge of the coastguard vessel, the ministries stated. China’s international ministry earlier within the week had defended its coastguard’s conduct, saying the actions had been based on legislation.
Marcos Jr additionally informed a information convention that he had reminded China’s ambassador that escalating aggression and incursions into Philippine waters by Beijing’s coastguard, navy and maritime militia forces violated an settlement he struck with Chinese language President Xi Jinping final month.
The laser-pointing incident was, he stated, inadequate provocation to invoke a mutual defence treaty with the United States, which is a longstanding army ally of Manila.
“If we activated that, what we’re doing is escalating, intensifying the tensions within the space and I believe that will be counterproductive,” the president informed reporters.
Beijing’s embassy in Manila didn’t reply to a request for touch upon Saturday.
China claims massive swaths of the South China Sea as its official maritime territory, a area the place about $3 trillion in ship-borne commerce passes yearly. A global courtroom ruling in 2016 discovered that China had no legal basis for its claims within the South China Sea.
China’s international ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin this week accused the Philippines and the US of participating in “pure political drama” in taking the South China Sea case to the worldwide courtroom of arbitration.
The spokesperson additionally stated that China wouldn’t be intimidated by the US.
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