Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte called on China to ease its stance regarding the airspace over the disputed South China Sea in wake of media reports claiming that the Chinese military had repeatedly warned Philippine airships to stay away from China's artificial islands in the area.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th August, 2018) Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte called on China to ease its stance regarding the airspace over the disputed South China Sea in wake of media reports claiming that the Chinese military had repeatedly warned Philippine airships to stay away from China's artificial islands in the area.
In late July, media reports emerged that Philippine military planes received such warnings at least 46 times in the second half of 2017 as they were approaching the artificial islands built by China in the Sprathy archipelago, located in the South China Sea.
"You cannot create an island and ... say that the air above the artificial island is your own. That is wrong... I hope that China would temper ... its behavior," Duterte said on Tuesday during his meeting with foreign guests, including US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim, as quoted by the Rappler news portal.
He added that the ships had a guaranteed right to "innocent passage" and did not requite "any permission to sail through the open seas."
The South China Sea and the East China Sea, where China regularly holds military drills, are a source of tension between China and its neighbors, including Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines, with the states arguing over their maritime borders. China considers the Sprathy archipelago, located in the South China Sea, as its territory, despite a ruling of The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration that these claims have no legal basis. The proceeding was initiated by the Philippines in 2013, and the ruling was made three years later.
The US-China bilateral relationship has also deteriorated over the disputed territory, with the United States criticizing China for moving weapons to the Sprathy Islands, and China qualifying this as meddling in its internal affairs.
