Sri Lanka president vetoes military deal with the US

Yahoo – AFP, July 6, 2019

Sri Lanka's president Maithripala Sirisena is at loggerheads with his pro-Western
Prime Minister (AFP Photo/LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI)

Colombo (AFP) - Sri Lanka's President Saturday announced he will not allow his government to conclude a proposed military deal that would allow US troops free access to the island's ports.

Maithripala Sirisena said he was opposed to the draft Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) that the two countries are negotiating to further strengthen their military ties.

Sirisena is at loggerheads with his pro-Western Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

"I will not allow any agreement that undermines our independence and sovereignty," Sirisena told a public rally in the island's south. "Several agreements currently being discussed are detrimental to our country."

"I will not allow the SOFA that seeks to betray the nation. Some foreign forces want to make Sri Lanka one of their bases. I will not allow them to come into the country and challenge our sovereignty."

The SOFA seeks to ensure reciprocal access to port facilities and allow freer entry to military personnel and their contractors.

Sirisena said there will be no bilateral agreements "against Sri Lanka's national interest" as long as he was in office. His term ends in January.

He did not name the powers he accused of trying to gain a military foothold in his Indian Ocean island republic of 21 million people.

However, it was a thinly veiled reference to the US which is keen on strengthening their existing military cooperation.

A year ago, Washington announced it was granting $39 million to boost maritime security in Sri Lanka as China developed its strategic hold on the Indian Ocean island.

Increased US interest in Sri Lanka comes as China is upping investment in ports and other building projects on the island, which is a key link in Beijing's ambitious "Belt and Road" infrastructure initiative.

The US had stopped arms sales to Sri Lanka during the height of the island's Tamil separatist war that ended in 2009. The global power has also been highly critical of the human rights record of the former government of strongman president, Mahinda Rajapakse.

Several senior military commanders from the Rajapakse regime have been denied visas to visit the US.

China has vowed to keep providing financial help, including loans, to Sri Lanka despite warnings about the island nation's mounting debt.

Sri Lanka in 2017 granted a 99-year lease on a strategic port to Beijing because of it could not repay Chinese loans for the $1.4 billion project.

The port in Hambantota straddles the world's busiest east-west shipping route and also gives a strategic foothold to China in a region long dominated by India.

Beijing, Hanoi promise to keep peace in South China Sea

Yahoo – AFP, April 1, 2018

Foreign ministers from China and Vietnam vowed to address disputes peacefully
(AFP Photo/MINH HOANG)

China and Vietnam vowed Sunday to keep the peace in the South China Sea, the resource-rich waterway that has long been a source of tension between Hanoi and its powerhouse communist neighbour.

China claims most of the disputed sea, which is believed to be rich in oil and gas reserves and is highly strategic for trade and defence.

Beijing has built up artificial islands capable of hosting military installations in recent years, stoking ire from claimants like Vietnam, which has emerged as China's most vocal opponent in the waterway.

Foreign ministers from China and Vietnam vowed Sunday to address disputes peacefully.

"Both sides should abide by the basic governing principles on resolving maritime issues. Both sides should not apply unilateral measures that would complicate the situation," China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters in Hanoi during an official visit to Vietnam.

His Vietnamese counterpart echoed calls to peacefully resolve disputes.

"We are ready to work with China to resolve arising issues," Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh told reporters.

He added both sides should "properly manage differences, not expand disputes (and) respect legitimate rights and interests of the other in accordance with international law".

Taiwan, Brunei and the Philippines also have claims in the sea. But the Philippines' China-friendly leader Rodrigo Duterte has backed off disputes with Beijing after a landmark international tribunal ruling in 2016 in Manila's favour.

Vietnam's tensions with Beijing in the waterway have largely played out behind closed doors. But violent protests erupted in Vietnam in 2014 after Beijing moved an oil rig into Vietnamese-claimed territory.

In the face of continued tensions with Beijing, Vietnam has publicly promoted deepening security ties with the US in recent weeks.

Earlier this month, a US aircraft carrier made a historic visit to Vietnam -- the first since the end of the war in 1975 -- and last week Washington handed over six patrol boats and equipment worth a combined $20 million to Hanoi.

Before his official meetings with Vietnamese leaders Sunday, the Chinese foreign minister attended a regional summit on economic cooperation in Vietnam, calling for open trade and deriding protectionism.

"Protectionism harms others without benefiting oneself, it is a one-way street that leads nowhere," Wang said Saturday, also lauding Beijing's ambitious Belt and Road initiative that has flooded Southeast Asia with Chinese investments.

Observers say China is seeking to boost its trade dominance in the region amid a perceived US retreat from Asia -- especially after US President Donald Trump pulled out of the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal last year.

Wang, who was promoted to state councillor this month -- making him a ranking member of China's cabinet -- will leave Hanoi Monday after meeting with Vietnam's Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong.

Sri Lanka hands over debt-laden port to Chinese owner

Yahoo – AFP, 9 December 2017

Sri Lanka hands over debt-laden port to Chinese owner

Colombo (AFP) - Sri Lanka Saturday handed over a deep-sea port to a Chinese firm, in a deal agreed to boost the cash-strapped island's finances that has raised concerns at home and abroad over Beijing's growing influence.

The $1.12 billion deal first announced in July lets a Chinese state company take over the southern port of Hambantota, which straddles the world's busiest east-west shipping route, on a 99-year lease.

"With the signing of the agreement today the Treasury has received $300 million," Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said at a ceremony in the capital to mark the handover.

"This is the beginning of our debt settlement," Wickremesinghe said.

The loss-making port will now be jointly managed by the state-owned Sri Lanka Port Authority and China Merchants Port Holdings.

Sri Lanka owes China $8 billion that former president Mahinda Rajapaksa's regime borrowed for its infrastructure development projects, including the port.

The deal has raised concerns at home and overseas, where countries such as India and the United States are known to be worried that China getting a foothold at the deep-sea port could give it a military naval advantage in the Indian Ocean.

On Friday Sri Lanka's parliament approved wide-ranging tax concessions for the port deal, including a tax holiday of up to 32 years for the Chinese firm, that opposition parties objected to.

"Please tell this House the details of very favourable tax concessions you gave China on the deal. What are you getting out of it?" Anura Dissanayake, an opposition law marker asked in parliament Saturday.

Sri Lanka has said it wants to reduce its high foreign debt with the proceeds of the Hambantota port deal, and is selling off some other enterprises to raise revenue.

Vietnam and China agree to avoid conflicts in S. China Sea

Yahoo – AFP, November 13, 2017

Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) shakes hands with Vietnamese President Tran
Dai Quang (R) at the presidential palace in Hanoi (AFP Photo/LUONG THAI LINH)

Vietnam and China agreed Monday to avoid conflicts in the hotly contested South China Sea, as a new pathway to dialogue on easing tensions was opened with other Southeast Asian nations.

The communist neighbours have long sparred over the sea, through which $5 trillion in shipping trade passes annually and which is believed to sit atop vast gas reserves.

Hanoi and Beijing agreed Monday to keep the peace in the sea, the countries said in a joint statement during a state visit to Hanoi by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

They agreed to "well manage disputes at sea, make no moves that may complicate or expand disputes, (and) maintain peace and stability on the East Sea," the Vietnamese version of the statement said, using Hanoi's term for the waters.

China claims nearly all of the sea, even approaching the coasts of its neighbours. It is also partly claimed by the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan in addition to Vietnam.

China has in recent years built artificial islands and airstrips capable of hosting military installations in contested areas to cement its claims, inflaming tensions with its neighbours.

Relations between China and Vietnam hit a low in 2014 when Beijing moved an oil rig into waters claimed by Vietnam, sparking weeks of protests.

There have been two armed conflicts between China and Vietnam in the sea -- brief clashes in 1974 and 1988 that claimed the lives of dozens of Vienamese troops.

On Sunday US President Donald Trump offered to help Vietnam resolve the long-simmering tensions.

"If I can help mediate or arbitrate, please let me know... I am a very good mediator," Trump said on his own state visit to Hanoi at the tail end of his marathon tour of Asia.

Vietnam offered no response.

And China, which has long insisted the United States has no role to play in the dispute, spoke out against what it deemed foreign interference.

"We hope non-regional countries can respect the regional countries' efforts in maintaining the regional stability of the South China Sea, and play a constructive role in this aspect," foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a regular press briefing in Beijing.

More talks agreed

Trump was in Manila on Monday for meetings with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and several other countries.

At that meeting China and ASEAN, which includes Vietnam, announced on Monday night they had agreed to begin talks on a much-delayed code of conduct for the sea.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang sealed the accord with the ASEAN leaders in Manila, according to China's state-run Xinhua news agency.

However no timeframe was announced for an actual code.

China initially agreed in 2002 to begin talks on a code, but delayed doing so while carrying out its expansionist strategy.

And at China's insistence, ASEAN also agreed in August that any future code would not be legally binding, despite a strong push from Vietnam.

After the Philippines backed China's position, ASEAN agreed it would not have legal force.

The Philippines had for many years stood alongside Vietnam as one of the region's strongest opponents to Chinese expansionism.

Following Manila's complaint to a United Nations-backed tribunal, the panel ruled last year that China's territorial claims in the sea were without legal basis.

But the Philippines, after President Rodrigo Duterte took office last year, decided not to use the ruling to pressure China.

He instead chose to build closer ties in return for billions of dollars in investments and aid.

Critics accused Duterte of giving in to Beijing. But he said his tactics had eased tensions and opened the door to dialogue.

Five N. Koreans sail across tense border to S. Korea

Yahoo – AFP, July 1, 2017

South Korean ships patrol the disputed waters of the Yellow Sea (AFP Photo/
KIM JAE-HWAN)

Five North Koreans in a small boat crossed the sea border into South Korean waters Saturday, a Coast Guard official said, in an apparent bid to defect to the South.

The five people, including four men and one woman, have expressed their wish to live in the South as defectors, the Yonhap news agency reported.

"Coast guards guided the boat to safety at (the eastern port of) Mukho," a South Korean coast guard official told AFP.

Government authorities were questioning the five North Koreans, he added.

The incident came after a North Korean fishing boat with eight people on board developed an engine trouble and drifted into South Korean waters off the country's eastern coast late last month.

Days later, South Korea repatriated all the eight, as they had requested.

Early last month, two people out of four crew members on another North Korean fishing boat which drifted to the South refused to return home. They were allowed resettle in the South.

There has also been a spate of overland border crossings in June.

Two North Korean soldiers walked across the heavily fortified border and a civilian swam across a river to defect to the South.

Over the decades since the peninsula was divided, dozens of North Korean soldiers have fled to the South through the Demilitarised Zone, which extends for two kilometers either side of the actual border.

A North Korean soldier defected to the South in September last year, and a teenage North Korean soldier defected in June 2015.

In 2012 a North Korean soldier walked unchecked through rows of electrified fencing and surveillance cameras, prompting Seoul to sack three field commanders for a security lapse.

More than 30,000 North Korean civilians have fled their homeland but it is very rare for them to cross the closely guarded inter-Korean border, which is fortified with minefields and barbed wire.

Most flee across the porous frontier with neighbouring China.

Asean Ministers Issue Joint Communiqué on South China Sea Dispute

Jakarta Globe, Eko Prasetyo, July 26, 2016

A Chinese Coast Guard vessel passes near a Chinese oil rig in the South
China Sea. (Reuters Photo/Nguyen Minh)

Jakarta. The 49th Asean Ministerial Meeting (AMM) in Vientiane, Laos, wrapped up on Tuesday (26/07) with the ministers issuing a Joint Communiqué on the territorial dispute in South China Sea.

“The agreement is evidence that Asean member countries are capable of uniting to protect their common interests,” Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi said in a statement.

The Asean member countries stated they will fully respect all legal and diplomatic steps as recommended by the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Seas (UNCLOS) 1982 to resolve overlapping claims on land or sea territories within and beyond Asean.

“The Joint Communiqué shows that Asean is committed to maintain regional peace, security and stability by respecting international law,” Retno said.

Under Indonesia’s initiative, the meeting has also produced a joint statement by Asean foreign ministers on maintaining peace, security and stability in the region.

Asean member countries will support the UN Charter, ASEAN Charter and the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia in maintaining bilateral relationships.

“The foreign ministers' statement shows that we are united in safeguarding our house from global geopolitical pressure,” Retno said.

In the context of Asean-China relations, Retno said that foreign ministers from Asean member countries and China have also released a joint statement agreeing on the implementation of the Declaration of Conduct in solving the South China Sea dispute.

According to Retno, she was involved in a three-day marathon lobbying to arrive at the agreement.

The Joint Communiqué also dealt with other important issues affecting Asean countries, including the prevention of illegal fishing; migrant workers' protection; human trafficking prevention and counterterrorism.

Other, more global issues were also dealt with in the communiqué, including a commitment to refrain from using nuclear weapons, supporting Palestinian independence, increasing Asean connectivity and improving partnerships to achieve the 2025 Asean Community’s goals and the 2030 UN Agenda for sustainable developments.

Related Articles:

Philippines willing to share South China Sea: Manila

Beijing's South China Sea claims invalid: tribunal

Matthew message (Channelled by Suzanne Ward, July 29, 2016) - New

Matthew Ward - July 29, 2016

Matthew Ward

With loving greetings from all souls at this station, this is Matthew. Your concerns about a number of issues are shared by many around the world, particularly the frequency of terrorist acts and mass shootings. As sad as it is to see our Earth brothers and sisters killing one another, we anticipated the increase in those kinds of incidents. They are the natural result of your linear time crunching up and energy levels that have intensified all personal characteristics, including mental instability, and corresponding behavior—those two powerful forces working in tandem is accelerating the activity of energy streamers with violent attachments.

We hasten to add that those forces are affecting everything on the planet, and situations propelled by beneficial attachments are steaming toward soundly-reasoned resolutions. An example is The Hague’s ruling pertaining to the South China Sea. China’s grumbling is not unexpected, but nothing in the energy field of potential indicates a strenuous objection that could lead to open conflict.

Of special interest in the United States and, because of its international influence, in other countries as well, is that nation’s two major political parties’ presidential nominees. We stated in previous messages that prevailing vibrations were not supporting candidates who lack moral and spiritual integrity, but the voters will decide who wins. Each party’s nominee has staunch supporters; however, the energy momentum of the electorate’s widespread dissatisfaction with both has become too strong for either to be elected.

Earth’s monitors in Nirvana tell us that the energy awhirl could manifest any of various possibilities that will put Senator Bernie Sanders in the White House. Souls at this station are apolitical, so it is not on a partisan basis that we will welcome his presidency, but rather that his wisdom, personal qualities and leadership will enable his country and your world to continue progressing toward Gaia’s vision for all life on her planetary body.

“So UK leaves EU. Now what?” The Illuminati’s dominoes will keep falling. It is not that countries cooperating to offer their citizens enhanced trade, employment and educational opportunities is not a grand idea— indeed, it is! But never was the purpose of the European Union to benefit the people, it was to put them squarely under the thumb of the Illuminati. When vibrations reached a rate wherein an organization built on a foundation of dark intent could not much longer stand, it became a matter of when the first domino in the EU would fall.

Let us put this into its larger context. The Illuminati—also now known as the cabal, global elite, shadow government, One World Order, One World Government—began as a group of individuals who felt that they were the most intelligent and learned people in the world, thus they were entitled to rule everyone else. Over time, others with the same superior attitude were drawn into the fold of this secret society, egos grew, tempers flared, and two competing factions emerged with the same goal, world domination.

Now we fast forward to sixty-some years ago, when the Rockefeller faction that operates out of New York and Washington, DC, was expanding its tentacles far westward and into Latin America. The Rothschild faction, headquartered in London and the Vatican, saw their territorial influence meager in comparison, so they buffed up their Council of Europe by establishing the European Union, European Central Bank and euro currency. The Union was put under the Council’s flag and shares its anthem—such a duplicitous choice, Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” With the first few countries buckled in by their EU belt, so to say, the Rothschilds and their minions set off on their expansion course; they moved into the new state of Israel, then throughout the Mideast, and more recently, northern Africa and some countries formerly within the Soviet Union.

All along both factions have used strategies in the original plan to reach their goal. They infiltrated governments, military forces, intelligence agencies, multinational corporations, law enforcement and justice systems, religious hierarchies, entertainment industry, medical and educational fields. They garnered fortunes by manipulating the global economy through stock markets, banking and lending institutions, usurious interest rates and unfair taxation. They initiated civil wars, wars between adjoining countries, and World Wars I and II; assassinated or imprisoned opposition; formed terrorist groups; suppressed and misused technologies; controlled mainstream media and the illegal drug trade; and took over natural resources wherever they went.

The original plan also included what they have failed to do—reduce the population by several billions via nuclear weaponry, toxic pollution, and pandemics caused by laboratory-designed viruses. All attempts toward that diabolical end have been thwarted by members of your universal family in your skies or living among you. Still, the two factions kept adding to their respective lines of dominoes and each felt that the world was coming within its grasp.

What they hadn’t taken into account is the light. After millennia of being held captive by the darkness that enshrouded the planet, the peoples started responding to the light beamed to Earth by spiritually evolved civilizations. The more enlightened they became, the more determined they were to throw off the yoke of oppression and persecution, and voices for freedom grew in numbers and volume. All the while, the intensifying light also was exposing the Illuminati’s global network of corruption and ruthlessness, and their dominoes started falling.

BREXIT is the most recent. Few individuals who voted to leave know of the Illuminati or the real purpose of the Union; what they knew is that benefits they had been led to believe they would derive had not materialized. Few who voted to remain know of the Illuminati or what the Union really was about, but they were faring well or were leery about what would happen if the United Kingdom set out on its own. Few know that the outcome of BREXIT was more than the vote count—it was influenced by vibrations that are undergirding activities leading toward a world of peace, honest governance, justness, and a fair share of Earth’s abundance for all peoples.

There will be some frayed nerves and bumpy patches as the EU unravels; more truths emerge; the economy fluctuates as the Illuminati—some at the peak of both factions have joined forces—futilely try to hold onto their ill-gotten wealth; and violence runs out its energetic course. Every happening in this moment and forthcoming is moving society closer to that aforementioned world. Beloved family, we know how eager you are for that to come about, and your steadfastness as lightworkers is helping to bring ever closer in linear time that which is fait accompli in the continuum.

“I am distressed about countries not wanting to accept immigrants from violence-torn areas and prejudice growing against them in countries that have taken them in. How can we ever live in harmony with prejudice increasing? First let us say that fear—a highly magnified energy form that is the major tool and fuel of dark minds and hearts—is the root of prejudice in all its pernicious forms and the source of all actions stemming from the illusion of separateness.

For the eons that Earth was stuck in deep third density, prejudice was the motivator of the violence and injustices that let countless souls complete their chosen karmic lessons. Now that the society is moving out of that density with its karmic merry-go-round, what is perceived as prejudice increasing actually is putting this basest aspect of humankind into the glare of a global spotlight so its destructive divisiveness can be clearly seen. As vibrations keep rising, healing, harmony and peace will come as love and mutual respect unify the peoples in the Oneness of All.

“Managing millions and millions of refugees seems an insurmountable problem. What will happen to all these desperate people?” The plight of the millions in hastily arranged camps will ease somewhat as aid organizations gain strength in numbers, and donations of monies, food, water, medical supplies and other essential equipment increase. The light radiated by the many aid-givers along with the light in worldwide compassion and the massive amount beamed to the planet is helping to sustain the refugees’ endurance and hopefulness.

As tyrannical regimes fall and warring ends, repatriation of people who fled those areas can begin. Financial and reconstruction assistance will be given in communities where this is practical; where villages and towns are too severely damaged to rebuild, the same assistance will be given to former residents so they can start anew in other locations. Immigrants in countries that gave them sanctuary will assimilate into those populations with benefits for all or choose to return to their native lands.

Please remember that the majority of refugees chose these life-changing circumstances to complete third density karma and evolve; also in keeping with contract choices, not all will survive their traumatic ordeal. People whose experiences are direr than chosen or who die prior to their contracts’ life span receive extraordinary opportunities for advancement in soul evolution, and advancement is the goal of every soul in every lifetime.

Some readers questioned whether loss of life and vast destruction due to wildfires, flooding and earthquakes creates negativity or is part of Earth’s cleansing process. It does both. While all of those events do create negativity, the cleansing effects for Earth are much greater—that is, negativity created by all other sources is released by natural disasters in far greater measure than the amount produced by those events.

“Do soul contracts of alternative healthcare practitioners and whistleblowers include being killed because of their efforts to do good?” Some contracts do. Practitioners who have been killed to prevent them from healing with natural therapies chose that fate to shed light on the collusion of the medical establishment with vaccine manufacturers and pharmaceutical and insurance companies; those whose services led to being professionally discredited and perhaps incarcerated or who fled to other countries agreed to those disruptions in their lives. It is the same with whistleblowers who have exposed many other situations that also adversely affect your lives. The numbers of individuals who experience or are threatened with one or another of the nefarious means whereby the Illuminati deal with anyone who jeopardizes their money-based interests have decreased as public awareness has increased.

Our explanation of why there will be no nuclear explosions in space prompted questions about the people who were damaged in such occurrences. First, this doesn’t apply to bodies, but to souls, and those that have been damaged were living as free spirits that didn’t embody, souls in civilizations so highly evolved that they have no density, or souls in astral travel. When a soul is shattered in a nuclear explosion, it doesn’t separate into whole personages, but rather into fragments that contain bits and pieces of memories of all lifetimes and whatever was remembered about the Beginnings in Creator. Traumatized by abrupt separation from the wholeness, most fragments drift throughout space, lost and confused, but some find their way into a body—this isn’t “possession,” it is an act of love on the part of the occupant soul.

Specially-trained teams search the heavens for the fragments, which emit vibrations on a unique bandwidth, and when one is found, it is transported to a healing facility where it is lovingly nurtured. When all fragments are located—in linear time this may take millennia—an intricate process is undertaken to restore the soul to its wholeness with every aspect of each lifetime in proper sequence. The diligent search and complex restoration show the infinite, eternal importance of each and every soul to Creator and, in this universe, to God.

“Can the soul be seen in a Kirlian photograph?” No. What is seen is the aura, light emanating from a body’s electromagnetic field that reflects the person’s spiritual status, emotional make-up, convictions and physical condition at the moment the photograph is taken.

Auras change in accordance with changes in the person. A healthy individual living in godly ways has a glowing aura that extends a fair way out from the body and may be multihued; the more spiritually evolved the individual, the brighter and broader the aura. If a person with those qualities becomes seriously ill or injured, the aura narrows and dims; its former status returns as healing occurs. A healthy individual whose mind is closed has a thin, dull aura; if that individual opens to spiritual and conscious enlightenment, the aura grows correspondingly wider and brighter. Someone whose greedy, angry, demanding or deceitful nature causes hardships for others outside their pre-birth agreement has a narrow murky border around the body; and a person who consistently ignores conscience and willfully causes suffering to others doesn’t have enough light for even an outline.

It is the collective auras of Earth’s humankind, animals and plant life that we see when we look at the planet in its entirety. Dear ones, if you could see what we do, you would be both joyous and awestricken by the panorama of love and enlightenment sparkling around the globe. Keep your light shining brilliantly!

All along your Earth journey you have been accompanied and supported by the unequaled power of love from light beings throughout this universe.

LOVE and PEACE

Suzanne Ward

Website: The Matthew Books

Email: suzy@matthewbooks.com

Beijing's South China Sea claims invalid: tribunal

Yahoo – AFP, July 13, 2016

Beijing raises rhetoric ahead of South China Sea ruling

Beijing (AFP) - Beijing's claims to a vast swathe of the South China Sea are invalid, an international tribunal ruled Tuesday, dealing a devastating diplomatic blow to its ambitions in one of the world's most important flashpoints.

China, which boycotted the proceedings at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague, rejected the ruling, calling it "null and void".

But analysts said it was a "huge win" for the Philippines, which brought the case.

The resource-rich, strategically vital waters of the South China Sea are disputed between the Asian giant -- which claims almost all of them on the basis of a "nine-dash line" that first appeared on Chinese maps in the 1940s -- and several other countries including the Philippines.

The row has embroiled the United States, which has deployed aircraft carriers and a host of other vessels to assert freedom of navigation in waters through which one-third of the global oil trade passes.

China says that its fishermen have visited the area for centuries, but the PCA tribunal said that under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Beijing had not had exclusive control of it.

Any historic rights were "extinguished" when it signed up to UNCLOS, it said, and there was "no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources within the sea areas falling within the 'nine-dash line'," it said.

Crucially, it ruled that none of the Spratlys, a chain of outcrops in the south of the sea, were "islands" under the meaning of UNCLOS, meaning that whoever had sovereignty over them -- an issue it did not address -- they were not entitled to 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of their own.

'Branded as an outlaw'

Some sea areas were therefore definitely in the Philippines' EEZ, it said, as they were "not overlapped by any possible entitlement of China".

China had violated the Philippines' sovereign rights in its EEZ and the artificial islands Beijing has been furiously building in recent years -- reshaping facts in the water in an effort to bolster its claim -- have inflicted severe environmental damage, it added.

The damning decision was "as unfavourable to China as it can be", said Yanmei Xie, China analyst for the International Crisis Group.

The award by the five-member panel -- chaired by a Ghanaian -- "overwhelmingly favours the Philippines -- a huge win," said M. Taylor Fravel of MIT.

Manila welcomed the decision but Beijing reacted furiously, saying it "neither accepts nor recognises" the ruling.

"The award is null and void and has no binding force," China's foreign ministry said on its website, reiterating its territorial claims.

The official news agency Xinhua cited President Xi Jinping as saying the islands have been Chinese territory since ancient times, and Beijing will not accept any action based on the decision.

China has consistently said the tribunal does not have jurisdiction on the issue -- declaring the support of multiple countries for its stance, many of them poor but with significant trading relationships with it -- and Xinhua reported the ruling under the headline: "Law-abusing tribunal issues ill-founded award".

In Washington, the State Department said the ruling was an "important contribution" to resolving regional disputes and should be seen as "final and legally binding".

China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council and has been seeking a greater role on the global diplomatic stage, and will not want to be seen as a violator of international law.

But how the decision could be enforced remains open to question. Richard Heydarian, a political analyst at De La Salle University in Manila, told AFP: "China has been branded as an outlaw in unequivocal terms. US, Japan and other major powers should now focus on enforcing this binding verdict if China fails to comply."

In the short term, the decision was likely to escalate the "war of words" but would not immediately change the geopolitical dynamics in the sea, said Xie of the International Crisis Group.

"We?re going to see a continuation of the chest thumping we've seen, especially from the China side."

'Tough reaction'

Beijing has held naval drills between the Paracels and the southern Chinese island of Hainan in recent days, while US Pacific Command said on Twitter that the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan had launched flight operations to support "security, stability" in the South China Sea.

Bonnie Glaser of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies told AFP: "I expect a very tough reaction from China since it has lost on almost every point."

China could choose to withdraw from UNCLOS, or begin building on Scarborough Shoal, which it seized from the Philippines in 2012 -- which Washington would view as a provocation.

Beijing could also declare an air defence identification zone over the South China Sea, claiming the right to interrogate aircraft passing through the airspace, or try to remove a ship grounded by Manila on Second Thomas Shoal for use as a base.

Xu Tiebing, international relations professor at Communication University of China, told AFP that Chinese would see the PCA decision as evidence of international opposition to their country.

"These international organisations were not absolutely neutral, and in fact they are still subject to the manipulation and influence of big powers," he said.

The Philippines, which had lodged the suit in 2013, welcomed the "milestone decision", and foreign secretary Perfecto Yasay said: "We call on all those concerned to exercise restraint and sobriety."

Nationalist demonstrations are not rare in China, sometimes apparently with the tacit backing of authorities, and the Philippine embassy in Beijing has warned its citizens to beware of personal "threats".

Chinese police sealed off the street where the mission stands.

pic.twitter.com/0Wk3BFnZkD

— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 12, 2016

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China calls for peaceful settlement of maritime disputes

Philippines willing to share South China Sea: Manila

Yahoo – AFP, Ayee Macaraig, Karl Malakunas, July 8, 2016

An activist holding a Philippine flag while a Chinese coastguard ship sails
close by at the Scarborough Shoal (AFP Photo/STR)

Manila (Philippines) (AFP) - The Philippines is willing to share natural resources with Beijing in contested South China Sea areas even if it wins a legal challenge next week, Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay told AFP Friday.

Yasay said President Rodrigo Duterte's administration hoped to quickly begin direct talks with China following Tuesday's verdict, with the negotiations to cover jointly exploiting natural gas reserves and fishing grounds within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone.

"We can even have the objective of seeing how we can jointly explore this territory: how we can utilise and benefit mutually from the utilisation of the resources in this exclusive economic zone where claims are overlapping," Yasay told AFP in an interview.

The Philippines, under Benigno Aquino's previous administration, filed in 2013 a legal challenge with a UN-backed tribunal in The Hague contesting China's claims to nearly all of the strategically vital sea.

China's claims reach almost to the coasts of the Philippines and some other Southeast Asian nations, and it has in recent years built giant artificial islands in the disputed areas to enforce what it says are its indisputable sovereign rights.

The Philippines' case enraged China, which repeatedly vowed to ignore the tribunal's ruling and is currently holding military drills in the northern part of the sea as a show of force.

Beijing claims nearly all of the strategically vital South China Sea (AFP Photo)

No provocations

China continued to steam on Friday, with foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei describing the case as "a violation of international rule of order under the cloak of championing it", and state-run media warning Beijing would not take a "single step back" in the dispute.

China has been further infuriated by the United States beefing up its military presence in the waters, with the US Navy Times newspaper reporting that three American destroyers had been sent into the hotspot areas ahead of Tuesday's verdict.

Duterte, who took office on June 30, has adopted a more conciliatory approach to China than Aquino.

The previous president refused to hold direct talks, and likened China's expansionist efforts in the sea to Nazi Germany's march on parts of Europe ahead of World War II.

Yasay signalled on Friday that Duterte would be making no such analogies, emphasising his administration would seek to ensure the best possible relations with China.

"The statements we will be making will be in the pursuit of strengthening our relationship with everybody and will be for the purpose of making sure there will be no stumbling block to our negotiating a peaceful solution to the issue," Yasay said.

Yasay said after the ruling is released, the Philippines would study it closely, discuss it with allies, and then seek to launch talks with China "as soon as possible".

Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a country's exclusive economic zone falls within 200 nautical miles of its coast. A nation has sovereign rights to exploit natural resources in that zone.

Beijing has built a runway on the Fiery Cross Reef, which is also claimed by

Vietnam and the Philippines (AFP Photo/DigitalGlobe)

Fish, drill together

Yasay said the Philippines was open to sharing Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone that China took control of in 2012 and has banned Filipino boats from entering.

"The resources there are God-given for all and for everyone to enjoy. We can work at joint benefit in so far as using the marine resources in the area," Yasay said.

Yasay said the Philippines would also consider jointly exploring a natural gas field at Reed Bank, which is similarly within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone and far from China's nearest major landmass.

"I think it would be in the pursuit of our national interest to do that and that will be a big step forward if everyone can agree on proceeding on that basis," Yasay said when asked about jointly developing Reed Bank.

Yasay insisted the Philippines would not concede any of its rights in the sea.

But he said the dispute over sovereignty would not be solved for many years, describing it as a "generational issue", and that rival claimants must in the meantime work cooperatively.

Duterte and Yasay met with China's ambassador to the Philippines, Zhao Jianhua, on Thursday. Zhao was seen again at the Department of Foreign Affairs on Friday. 

China, Russia eye closer friendship amid tensions with West

Yahoo – AFP, 25 June 2016

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) shakes hands with Chinese President 

Xi Jinping during a signing ceremony in Beijing's Great Hall of the People on

June 25, 2016 (AFP Photo/Greg Baker)

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin promised ever-closer cooperation and oversaw a series of deals Saturday, as the two countries deepen ties in the face of growing tensions with the West.

In what was Putin's fourth trip to China since Xi became President in 2013, the two men stressed their shared outlook which mirrors the countries' converging trade, investment and geopolitical interests.

"Russia and China stick to points of view which are very close to each other or are almost the same in the international arena," Putin said.

The Russian leader added that the two had discussed "strengthening together the fight against international terrorism", the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula, Syria, and stability in the South China Sea.

Russia and China have been brought together by mutual geopolitical concerns, among them wariness of the United States.

The two countries often vote as a pair on the UN Security Council, where both hold a veto, sometimes in opposition to Western powers on issues such as Syria.

China has raised tensions with its neighbours and the US over its claims to virtually all of the South China Sea, where it has built militarised artificial islands to bolster its claims in the contested but strategically vital region.

Russia’s annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and support for other Ukrainian separatist movements have led to the worst East-West standoff since the Cold War.

At loggerheads with the West, Moscow is seeking to refocus its gas and oil exports from Europe -- its main energy market -- towards Asia and is diligently building an energy alliance with Beijing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during a joint press briefing with Russian

 President Vladimir Putin, in Beijing's Great Hall of the People on June 25, 2016

(AFP Photo/Greg Baker)

'Friends forever'

Xi emphasised that this year marked the 15th anniversary of the China-Russia treaty of friendship and hoped that the two countries might remain "friends forever".

"President Putin and I equally agree that when faced with international circumstances that are increasingly complex and changing, we must persist even harder in maintaining the spirit of the Sino-Russian strategic partnership and cooperation," he said.

The two sides signed over 30 cooperation deals in areas such as trade, infrastructure, foreign affairs, technology and innovation, agriculture, finance, energy, sports and the media.

Notably, Russian oil giant Rosneft inked a deal with China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec) on developing a gas processing and petrochemical plant in East Siberia, as China seeks energy to fuel its economic growth.

Xi and Putin signed two joint statements themselves, one "to strengthen global strategic stability" and one to promote the development of information and cyberspace.

Putin said that 58 different deals worth a total of around $50 billion were currently in discussion, adding that the two countries will seek to secure an agreement on building a high-speed rail line in Russia by the end of the year.

Xi also called for closer cooperation between news agencies in Russia and China so that both countries could "together increase the influence" of their media on world public opinion.

Under Xi, Communist China has mounted crackdowns on dissidents and tightened restrictions on the media, while critics accuse Putin's Russia of rights abuses.