Philippines, July 14:
The U.S., the U.K. and a dozen other Western and Asian countries reasserted on Sunday that China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea are illegal based on a 2016 arbitration ruling.
A joint statement issued by the 14 nations said they rejected “destabilizing” actions in the disputed waters that threaten regional stability. The 27-nation European Union released a separate statement, reaffirming the ruling as a “landmark decision in the peaceful settlement of disputes.”
The statements commemorated a July 12, 2016, arbitration ruling by a tribunal established in The Hague under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, saying the landmark decision is “is final and legally binding.” China reiterated Sunday that the ruling was “null and void and has no binding force” and Beijing “neither accepts nor recognizes it.”
China refused to join the arbitration initiated by the Philippines in 2013 after a tense standoff in the contested waters a year earlier that ended with Beijing effectively seizing a disputed shoal. Beijing rejected the 2016 ruling and defends its claims to virtually the entire sea passage.
The areas has been the scene of repeated territorial standoffs involving China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
“We reaffirm the Arbitral Tribunal’s decision that there is no legal basis for China’s expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea, including those based on `historic rights,’” the U.S.-led statement said.