The text of the following statement was released by the Governments of the United States of America, Australia, Canada, Estonia,\u00a0Germany, Italy,\u00a0Japan, Latvia, Lithuania,\u00a0New Zealand,\u00a0the Republic of the Philippines, Romania,\u00a0Slovenia,\u00a0and the United Kingdom\u00a0on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Philippines-China South China Sea Arbitral Tribunal Award:<\/p>\n
We reaffirm our unwavering commitment to maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific\u00a0that is peaceful, stable, and rules-based, anchored in international law,\u00a0and commemorate the 10th anniversary of the\u00a0July 12, 2016,\u00a0Arbitral Tribunal\u2019s\u00a0landmark\u00a0and unanimous\u00a0decision\u00a0on the South China Sea\u00a0constituted under Annex VII of\u00a0UNCLOS.<\/p>\n
We reaffirm that maritime disputes must be resolved peacefully and\u00a0in\u00a0accordance with\u00a0UNCLOS.\u00a0\u00a0We reaffirm that\u00a0the\u00a0Award\u00a0rendered\u00a0ten\u00a0years ago\u00a0by the Arbitral Tribunal\u00a0is\u00a0a significant\u00a0milestone\u00a0and\u00a0is\u00a0final, legally binding,\u00a0and\u00a0definitive\u00a0between\u00a0China and the Philippines\u00a0with respect to the maritime entitlements and claims addressed by the\u00a0Arbitral\u00a0Tribunal.<\/p>\n
We reaffirm the Arbitral Tribunal\u2019s decision that there is no legal basis\u00a0for China\u2019s expansive maritime claims\u00a0in\u00a0the South China Sea, including those based on \u201chistoric rights\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0We underscore the importance of upholding freedom of navigation and overflight, as well as other\u00a0internationally\u00a0lawful uses of the sea,\u00a0as reflected in\u00a0UNCLOS.<\/p>\n
We reiterate our strong opposition to any destabilizing or unilateral\u00a0actions\u00a0including by force or coercion that threaten peace and stability in the region.\u00a0\u00a0We reaffirm our strong opposition to the use of coast guard,\u00a0military,\u00a0and maritime militia forces to harass, obstruct, or intimidate lawful operations by other\u00a0States at sea or in the air, and in so doing\u00a0endanger the safety of\u00a0personnel and fishermen\u00a0and\u00a0seriously degrade regional peace and security.\u00a0\u00a0We urge\u00a0the parties\u00a0to\u00a0abide by the 2016\u00a0Award and\u00a0resolve disputes peacefully through dialogue and other\u00a0lawful mechanisms\u00a0in accordance\u00a0with\u00a0international law.<\/p>\n
We\u00a0remain\u00a0steadfast in our support\u00a0for\u00a0a free and open Indo-Pacific\u00a0and\u00a0reiterate our commitment to\u00a0promoting\u00a0our shared vision with\u00a0ASEAN of\u00a0the\u00a0South China Sea\u00a0as a sea of peace,\u00a0stability, cooperation, and\u00a0prosperity\u00a0driven by\u00a0vibrant lawful commerce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The text of the following statement was released by the Governments of the United States of America, Australia,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-687311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}