July 11, 2026 – Ottawa, Ontario – Global Affairs Canada<\/p>\n
The text of the following statement was released by the governments of Australia, Canada, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, New Zealand, the Republic of the Philippines, Romania, Slovenia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Philippines-China South China Sea Arbitral Tribunal Award.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe reaffirm our unwavering commitment to maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific that is peaceful, stable, and rules-based, anchored in international law, and commemorate the 10th anniversary of the July 12, 2016, Arbitral Tribunal\u2019s landmark and unanimous decision on the South China Sea constituted under Annex VII of UNCLOS.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe reaffirm that maritime disputes must be resolved peacefully and in accordance with UNCLOS.\u00a0 We reaffirm that the award rendered ten years ago by the Arbitral Tribunal is a significant milestone and is final, legally binding, and definitive between China and the Philippines with respect to the maritime entitlements and claims addressed by the Arbitral Tribunal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe reaffirm the Arbitral Tribunal\u2019s decision that there is no legal basis for China\u2019s expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea, including those based on \u201chistoric rights.\u201d We underscore the importance of upholding freedom of navigation and overflight, as well as other internationally lawful uses of the sea, as reflected in UNCLOS.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe reiterate our strong opposition to any destabilizing or unilateral actions, including by force or coercion that threaten peace and stability in the region. We reaffirm our strong opposition to the use of coast guard, military, and maritime militia forces to harass, obstruct, or intimidate lawful operations by other States at sea or in the air, and in so doing endanger the safety of\u00a0 personnel and fishermen and seriously degrade regional peace and security. We urge the parties to abide by the 2016 Award and resolve disputes peacefully through dialogue and other lawful mechanisms in accordance with international law.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe remain steadfast in our support for a free and open Indo-Pacific and reiterate our commitment to promoting our shared vision with ASEAN of the South China Sea as a sea of peace, stability, cooperation, and prosperity driven by vibrant lawful commerce.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"July 11, 2026 – Ottawa, Ontario – Global Affairs Canada The text of the following statement was released…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2840,49,48,26211,95,33262,14040,10816,26209,24744,26213,4996,2454,66994,46899,5441,44,2053,5104,50491,26212,127,772],"class_list":["post-796111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-australia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-and-the-world","tag-china","tag-estonia","tag-general-public","tag-germany","tag-global-affairs-canada","tag-government-and-politics","tag-hon-anita-anand","tag-italy","tag-japan","tag-latvia","tag-lithuania","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-philippines","tag-romania","tag-slovenia","tag-statements","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}