Philippines wants SE Asian unity on sea row

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is seeking the backing of Southeast Asian governments for its proposal to separate disputed areas in the South China Sea from non-disputed waters.

The move is part of a plan by Manila to ease the tensions with China and other claimants.

The Philippines and Vietnam have accused China this year of disrupting their oil exploration activities in the Spratlys and Paracel Islands. Bejing claims the entire South China Sea as its own.

Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said Friday that legal experts from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations will meet in September to tackle the initiative.

Legal experts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will meet in Manila in September to discuss the proposal, foreign department spokesman Raul Hernandez told reporters.

He said the aim was to eventually get the 10 ASEAN nations, and later on China, to endorse the proposal to delineate the disputed sections of the strategically located and reputedly resources-rich area.

"If we can define those disputed features then we can have the joint development of those areas," Hernandez said.

Areas not in dispute should be the exclusive preserve of the country that owns them, Hernandez said.

Competing claims to the potentially oil-rich Paracel and Spratly island groups in the South China Sea have caused rising tensions in recent months, with regional neighbours accusing China of behaving aggressively.

These areas, which straddle vital commercial shipping lanes, are subject to a tangle of maritime claims by China, Taiwan, and ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

However China maintains it owns all of the South China Sea, even waters approaching the coasts of Southeast Asian countries.

ASEAN, which also includes Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, agreed with China at a ministerial meeting last week to a set of guidelines setting a framework for an eventual code of conduct for the sea.

But China has consistently rejected efforts for the disputes to be resolved in a multilateral setting.

It prefers bilateral negotiations, which other countries fear is a divide-and-conquer approach that would weaken their bargaining capabilities with the Asian superpower.

Hernandez said that if the Philippine proposal got traction it would be tabled for discussion by ASEAN senior officials and eventually its foreign ministers.