Seoul: Philippines defence secretary Gilberto C Teodoro stood his ground against China at the Seoul Defence Dialogue despite Beijing’s attempts to browbeat him even as he was delivering his address.
Teodoro was speaking on China’s growing aggressive stance in the South China Sea when a man wearing a white sports coat walked up behind him and placed a piece of paper on the table.
The Phillipines defence secretary stopped speaking, picked up the document and read it before deciding to share its contents with the audience.
“I have a note here, I think this is from China. And may I read it?” Teodoro said.
What followed turned an unusual interruption into a public confrontation over the long-running South China Sea dispute, as reported by News18.
Beijing’s position on the 2016 South China Sea arbitration was clarified in the note. It stated that China’s stance was “clear, consistent and firm”. It also described the arbitration decision as a violation of “fundamental principles of international law”.
The arbitration was initiated by the Philippines under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
The tribunal, in its 2016 ruling, dismissed China’s claims to historic rights over large parts of the South China Sea and found no legal basis for Beijing to claim resources within areas falling under the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
This ruling has consistently been rejected by China, which disputed the tribunal’s jurisdiction.
Beijing, however, may not have had plans to directly interrupt the Phillipino official’s address.
According to forum organisers, the document originated with a Chinese military attaché at the Chinese Embassy in Seoul, Yonhap News Agency reported. The attaché gave the note to a forum staff member with instructions for it to be delivered to Teodoro.
The staff member apparently misunderstood where the message had come from and handed it to the Philippine defence secretary while he was speaking.
Once Teodoro realised the note was presenting Beijing’s position on the South China Sea, he chose to respond to it publicly.
He questioned the manner in which the message had reached him and challenged China’s approach to the dispute.
“How can you deal with a country in an international forum – beyond the question asked me – disrespecting the organisers of this forum? How do you expect to deal with it civilly?” he asked.
Teodoro then accused China of “coercion, bullying and aggression”. “Perhaps basic decency and behaviour is what China needs to do,” he added.
He also linked Beijing’s position on the arbitration ruling to the broader principles underpinning maritime law.
“If this is a Chinese position sent to me, it not only disrespects international law, throwing UNCLOS to the floor and trampling upon it, but it also disrespects the basic decency that should be accorded to our most gracious host, the Republic of Korea, and the rest of the audience here,” the defence secretary said.
He intended to retain the note as a “memento” of “how desperate China is and how ineffective its position is in the face of a free audience”, Teodoro said.
Turning to the man who had delivered the document, he said: “You’ve just done your country a great service. Thank you, and I hope you don’t suffer in a gulag for it.”
The note him another opportunity to outline Manila’s concerns about Beijing’s activities in the disputed waters.
“I think it is well known to the public, to everyone here, about the Philippine situation where we face challenges daily from the People’s Republic of China, which tries to occupy and illegally assert its presence over our territory and especially our exclusive economic zone,” Teodoro said.
The Philippines has responded to these challenges by strengthening its defence partnerships and alliances, the defence secretary said.
“We live in a very interconnected world, and there is no right for any state of that matter to appropriate an international common for its exclusive use or right, contrary to what the international norms clearly state,” Teodoro said.
The South China Sea remains one of the most contentious maritime disputes in Asia. Manila continues to invoke the 2016 arbitration award in challenging Beijing’s claims, while China refuses to recognise the ruling.
Beijing later sought to distance itself from the specifics of the incident while reiterating its established position on the arbitration case.
It did not know the details surrounding what happened at the Seoul forum but reiterated that China’s position on the South China Sea arbitration remained “clear and consistent”, China’s foreign ministry said.
“We advise some people in the Philippines to stop trying to stir up trouble, stop undermining bilateral ties and stability in the South China Sea,” the ministry said without directly naming Teodoro.