Marcos thanks Canada for 'vocal, consistent support' in South China Sea

VANCOUVER — President Marcos yesterday conveyed his gratitude to the Canadian government for its “vocal and consistent support” for a rules-based order in the South China Sea, particularly to the “final and legally binding” Arbitral Award, during his meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. The Philippines will mark the 10th anniversary of the ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration on July 12 that upheld the country’s sovereign rights within its exclusive economic zone and rejected China’s sweeping claims over most of the South China Sea as without legal basis. Beijing has continued to ignore the decision. Both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific grounded in international law. Carney also underscored the importance of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), “something to which we are signatory and we absolutely uphold.” “We uphold the decisions and squarely back the decisions of 2016 that are directly relevant to the territorial waters and activities of the Philippines,” the Prime Minister said. “These types of arrangements, UNCLOS is one very important example. There are many others. Canada still fully subscribes to them, fully supports them and will continue to support them,” Carney said. The Philippines has been demanding that China adhere to international laws, including the 1982 UNCLOS and the 2016 arbitral ruling, which junked Beijing’s sweeping claims in the South China Sea. Carney also emphasized the crucial role of middle powers like Canada in reinforcing rules-based order. Meanwhile, Marcos expressed his gratitude to Canada for its Dark Vessel Detection or DVD program, which was deployed to the Philippines to help combat Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and increase maritime domain awareness. “I conveyed keen interest in the continuation of the DVD program in Philippine waters,” the Chief Executive said. Both leaders underscored the importance of maintaining partnerships with other countries, both bilaterally and multilaterally, to weather challenges and attain stability. “With the volatility in the geopolitical world in the past years, I think it is a necessary development, not only for Canada and the Philippines, but for other like-minded countries who still continue to believe in international law and rules-based international system,” Marcos said. “We have two different forces that we have to balance here. One is to be stable and at the same time we have to be agile,” Marcos said.