'No right to interfere': China says as India backs Philippines' sovereignty over South China Sea territorial row

The South China Sea is a major waterway and has been at the centre of a territorial conflict between China and its maritime neighbours, like Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

New Delhi: Soon after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday asserted India’s firm support to the Philippines in upholding its sovereignty, China – currently engaged in an escalating territorial row with the Southeast Asian nation – strongly reacted, saying that no third party should interfere in the maritime dispute between the two nations.

China also asked India to respect its sovereignty and maritime interests.

Jaishankar met his counterpart and the foreign secretary of the Philippines, Enrique A Manalo, in Manila on Tuesday. “I take this opportunity to firmly reiterate India’s support to the Philippines for upholding its national sovereignty,” he said in a joint news conference with Manalo. He also referred to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 as the constitution of the seas and sent a message to President Xi Jinping’s government in Beijing by stressing that all parties must adhere to it in its entirety, both in letter and spirit.

He said that the progress and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific region was best served by staunch adherence to a rules-based order.

Jaishankar visited Manila even as tension between China and the Philippines escalated over mutually conflicting claims and counterclaims over the South China Sea.

Beijing strongly reacted to the comment made by the external affairs minister of India. “Maritime disputes are issues between the countries concerned. Third parties have no right to interfere whatsoever,” Lin Jian, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the communist country’s government, told journalists in Beijing later in the day. “We urge relevant parties to face squarely the facts and truth on the South China Sea issue and respect China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests and the efforts of regional countries to keep the South China Sea peaceful and stable.” 

During the joint news conference with Jaishankar in Manila on Tuesday, Manalo particularly referred to the latest flashpoint that took place on Saturday, when a water cannon attack from the vessels of the China Coast Guard and the maritime militia of the communist country on a remote outpost – a marooned warship – of the Philippines Navy at the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea resulted in the injuries of three soldiers of the Southeast Asian nation. President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr’s government summoned China’s envoy to the Philippines and lodged a strong protest.

Beijing, however, warned Manila against provocative actions and vowed to protect the territorial sovereignty of China.

The South China Sea is a major waterway and the sea lanes in this region account for over US $ 3.25 trillion of international trade. It has been at the centre of a territorial conflict between China and its maritime neighbours, like Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, and the Philippines. An Arbitral Tribunal constituted under the UNCLOS 1982 delivered a unanimous decision in 2016 rejecting Beijing’s expansive claims on the South China Sea. China, however, steadfastly refused to adhere to it.

Jaishankar conveyed New Delhi’s support to Manila in safeguarding its territorial sovereignty even as the stand-off between the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) along the LAC in eastern Ladakh could not be resolved completely although four years passed since it had started in April-May 2020. Beijing also of late repeatedly asserted its claim on India’s Arunachal Pradesh as part of China.

New Delhi in June 2023 offered Manila a Line of Credit (LoC) to help it meet its defence requirement amid the increasing belligerence of China in the Indo-Pacific region. Earlier, the Philippines signed a contract worth about $ 374.96 million to procure BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles manufactured in India in collaboration with Russia.