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ah, blinding them temporarily. the confrontation, not good, never specially islands that the philippines games is part of the tree. china disputes that came along with similar claims from other countries, over island, in the south, tennessee. the doubles jeanette milan has been speaking to the philippine foreign secretary in rico marlowe. about the growing tensions she began by asking him what the philippines is doing to prevent what is now regular harassment by china, of its vessels. there is nothing renews and lies with the harassment. i mean, it's not new vessels. it's also fishermen. we of course, have approached china almost regularly every time we learn of a situation and really when we explain it to them, our only hope is that they would refrain what if they're going to impede at least

sometimes they should do it in a more friendly way. rather than pointing a laser, what's a more friendly way? well, they can at least ask us not to proceed to this, certainly to this area, but it doesn't mean that we would necessarily agree, but unfortunately that's the situation. now, in certain parts of the south china sea, which are actually part of our exclusive economic zone, where we actually have the right to take advantage of whatever resources are there . and not the, let's say, prevented from doing so. actually it's well sound to, to them preventing us from using parts of our exclusive economic zone. the problem is they denied that they should, we have prevented us from doing it sometimes saying that they did not really prevent us. they were just guiding us away from certain area. so it's, it's, it's one of those things. now, it's been quite a few years since the philippines,

one, it's arbitration case in the hague. china, of course, still seems determined to ignore it. how has this ruling really help the philippines than well, it has confirmed at least the fact that the, the chinese claim, or the so called 9 dash line, does not hold water and is inconsistent with the un convention of the sea. and because of this, we have garnered support from various countries on the interpretation about ruling . of course, china does not recognize the rulings. all we can really do at this stage is, is continue to distress the rule of law. and if there are any differences or disputes, they should be settled in accordance with the rule of law. now you've spoken of support. of course, this week when official has said that washington and manila are exploring joint coast guard patrols, washington is also increasing its military presence in the philippines. how would

you describe the philippine position now in terms of balancing us and china ties? well, you know, as of every country in the region, we're faced with the growing us china rivalry. actually, what is these arrangements we have with the united states and really part of our existing treaty, the mutual defense treaty and more specifically the visiting forces agreements and but many of these operations are really aimed at improving our humanitarian disasters or natural disasters. aside from perhaps also serving if necessary, trading in case we run any security threats. president marcus has articulated that the philippines will be a friend to all and an enemy to non. this will clearly not always be possible, especially given that the u. s. in the philippines or treaty allies, what sort of red lines does the philippines have? that would make it invoke the mutual defense treaty that it has with us being

friends to all or friends? it doesn't necessarily mean you don't have any problems with your friends or any issues, but we as friends, the, the whole idea is if we have differences, we should try and resolve them peacefully, or at least a friendly way. that's what we're trying to say. and in the case of china, we do have extensive relations with china, especially on the economic front. and there's always been this understanding, at least for the past few years, that the differences we have in the westfield, b and c, or sell trying to see or not the sum total of our relationship. nevertheless, we do have differences there. so while we wish to, let's say enhance our economic ties. and we also need to address the challenges we face in the south china sea. alright, let's get more context on the phone secretaries remarks from richard had area and

he's an author columnist and political scientist and an expert in philippines. china ties return from what the foreign secretary is saying. do you get the impression that the philippines has a new way to take an old challenge from china in the south china sea? well, it's hard to say that, oh, there is a new way here, or we're dealing with the old challenge. because on the one hand, the challenge from chinese and evolving challenge, as far as the philippines is concerned, we're not only facing threats in the south china sea area where we have to return these. we china. but now the invasion of taiwan is increasing probability, right? and there, even discussions of that happening within the coming years, if not calm decades. so now the philippines is also worried that bought the potential ramifications of a chinese invasion or any kind of serious military operations against taiwan, which by to weight is separated from the philippines. by a very narrow straight. so the threat from chinese not or not, it's evolving. and at the same time,

the philippines strategies also adjusting accordingly. so the market junior administration policy is on like any of the previous administration. is your administration precise? because it's friendly or to china than previous liberal reforms administration, but definitely tougher also in china than the previous deter it. administration. it's interesting you mentioned time on because i did want to me was on taiwan. and we did aust avoidance extra about that, that's coming up in a bit. but just staying in the south china sea, china has refused to consider with the philippines is saying essentially it also does not accept the 2016 drooling from the hey, international arbitration cold. that essentially, room china does not have a claim or the south china see what options does the philippines really have? well, actually i would have argued it more forcefully than the philippine foreign secretary . i think the philippine arbitration, the word actually isn't extremely useful. first of all, have you not these chinese not using the term 9 dash line anymore because it knows that it's a legal joke that it's a diplomatic liability. so since the word came out,

china is coming up with alternative ideas and alternate. adopt trends that have also been struck down and ridiculous and marked by global experts. so actually it's working because china itself is rethinking its diplomatic positioning in the language to do this, when it comes to the claim number to the philippine arbitration award, actually provided the legal pretext for the united states to expand its military prisons in the area, particularly in terms of what you called fried off navigation operations. over the past few years, we have seen dozens of american warships getting close to the chinese, artificially created islands and challenging chinese claims. and now we see even european countries coming in, not as aggressive as the united states, but legal, aggressive, diplomatic, aggressive. and sometimes we see the french, the europeans also passing through with their worships to also send a signal. so to be honest, i think the philippines is not recognizing how effective its policy has been, but that's my argument. it has been effective but not, but we have to leverage its further in prison markets. it's been very clear,

it's non negotiable. the philippines has no territory, disputes we china, because china se claims in the philippine waters are inconsistent with international law. i'm glad to talk to you and getting some context out of the foreign secretaries remarks. but as you mentioned, the threat from taiwan and what the tensions over that island could also impact the philippines and my colleague, janelle did ask for the secretary me, and i know about that is what he said, the valves, the, the plans. but there are plans, but our policy here is really to see that nothing serious happens. i mean, no military conflict occurs and i want because our view is that, well, 1st of all, aside from the fact we have 150000 i want is only the southern most steep up. i want is only about 70 can ometer from the northern most tip of the philippines in the news on. so obviously, any,

any military conflict there will most likely directly affect the really things richard, is this the rationale, you think behind granting the u. s. military access to philippine military bases in the north of the country. i mean, 1st of all is keep in mind you cannot choose your neighbors. so our geography with taiwan is something we cannot negotiate. it's there. and any major show down there between china and taiwan, united states is gonna affect us, which brings us to the number 2 issue. when you already have a treaty alliance, you'd rather prepare for that situation than just standing under the, on the sidelines. because the philippines cannot be neutral, visa us even actual war happens. alice cannot be neutral. not having said that. it's interesting. they say, you know, it takes a nixon to go to china. you could also argue that it takes a marker junior to correct the excesses of a did there. the administration, i think president did there to went a bit too far in use, ah, strategic flirtation, we china and also with his animosity towards the west. so mark was junior, who is

a suppose it alo of the deter, this is ashley correcting that my warn is that he might be over creating that and doing things too fast, because it makes sense for the philippines to solidify its alliance with the united states. but the war we have is that we might get too much involved in the u. s. preparations for to tie one war. and we might give soft verde creek abase isn't northern most areas of the philippines, access to the americans to those bases. and that might provoke china and create reactions that we may not be prepared for. so i am glad with a duration of he'd been foreign was about it also some misgivings about how fasting serve moving the past 67 months. really we have about a minute left to go present, macos was in bridging in january. did that visit help permissions? i think that visit was extremely crucial precisely because it showed the limits of diplomacy. you know, we keep on saying friends to all enemy to non but how can we be friends, the countries that are not acting like france if not like enemies, right. so if you look at his visit to china,

it was only 2 days. he brought 200 people with him, but we got barely any breakthrough on the south, chinese disputes and guess what? also barely any breakthrough on all of this on feel, feel chinese promises to the philippines. i call the pledge strapped, not debt trapped because an investment came in, but to tear, to gave all sorts of concessions. so marcus learned his lesson and his recalibrating research. i better known as a pleasure talking to relieve with there. thanks so much for joining us today. pleasure, lois, i'm bad. does it for to very there's more from the region on our website, the number dot com forward slash asia am as old as you can follow us on facebook and twitter. we're back to moral at the same time to them. but

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