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| Philippine president Benigno Aquino III (EPA Photo) |
Manila.
Indonesia and the Philippines on Friday signed a maritime border accord,
hailing it as a model for peacefully settling increasingly tense territorial
disputes in the region.
Indonesian
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the agreement, the result of 20 years
of negotiations, showed that the escalating rows in the South China Sea could
be resolved without violence.
“This
indeed is a model, a good example, that any disputes including maritime border
tension can be resolved peacefully — not with the use of military might which
(may) endanger stability and peace in our region,” Yudhoyono said after
overseeing the signing with Philippine President Benigno Aquino at the
presidential palace in Manila.
Tensions
have flared in the South China Sea, which is believed to hold vast oil and gas
deposits, with China embroiled in separate rows with Vietnam and the
Philippines over disputed waters.
Deadly
riots broke out in Vietnam last week after China deployed an oil rig in
contested waters.
Aquino said
the new agreement between Indonesia and the Philippines served as “solid proof
of our steadfast commitment to uphold the rule of law and pursue the peaceful
and equitable settlement of maritime concerns”.
Signed by
the Indonesian and Philippine foreign ministers, the agreement delineates the
boundaries of both nations’ overlapping exclusive economic zones in the
Mindanao Sea, the Celebes Sea and the Philippine Sea.
Under
international law, countries have exclusive economic zones extending 200
nautical miles from their coasts that give them rights to resources in those
waters. But these zones can overlap between neighbouring countries.
China, the
Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan have conflicting claims to
parts of the South China Sea.
The Philippines
and Vietnam have repeatedly expressed concern and more recently anger at what
they perceive as increasingly hostile Chinese efforts to assert China’s rule
over the disputed areas.
China is
also engaged in a worsening dispute with Japan over islands in the East China
Sea that has severely damaged relations between Asia’s two biggest economies.
Yudhoyono,
in Manila for a state visit and to attend the World Economic Forum on East
Asia, voiced alarm at the growing disputes.
“The
situation in East Asia is filled with tensions and so is the situation in
Southeast Asia, including the South China Sea,” he said.
He urged
China and Southeast Asian nations to “return to the spirit” of a 2002 agreement
in which they said they would not take any actions that raised tensions in
disputed areas.
Agence France-Presse
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