{"id":84911,"date":"2017-01-12T17:21:14","date_gmt":"2017-01-12T22:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=84911"},"modified":"2017-01-12T20:23:10","modified_gmt":"2017-01-13T01:23:10","slug":"84911","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/01\/12\/84911\/","title":{"rendered":"Abe welcomes closer PHL-China ties, affirms importance of peaceful resolution to South China Sea dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Japanese<\/a>
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (Pictured) on Thursday welcomed President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s efforts to improve ties with China and affirmed the importance of the rule of law and the peaceful resolution of disputes in the West Philippine Sea. (Photo: Ace Moradante\/ Presidential Photo<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA \u2013Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday welcomed President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s efforts to improve ties with China and affirmed the importance of the rule of law and the peaceful resolution of disputes in the West Philippine Sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cI welcome the fact that President Duterte is making efforts to improve China-Philippine relations in light of the arbitral award,\u201d he said during a joint press briefing with Duterte in Malaca\u00f1ang.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe significance of the rule of law, peaceful resolution of disputes and non-militarization has been confirmed at ASEAN-Related Meetings last year. Keeping in mind this year\u2019s ASEAN-Related Meetings, we affirmed the importance of these,\u201d Abe said.<\/p>\n

In July 2016, the Hague-based United Nations (UN) Arbitral Tribunal invalidated China’s so-called “nine-dash line” claim to the resource-rich West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).<\/p>\n

But despite the ruling, President Duterte has made efforts to forge closer ties with China stressing that a peaceful resolution to the dispute is the more logical solution.<\/p>\n

Abe acknowledged that \u201cthe issue of the South China Sea is linked directly to regional peace and stability and is a concern to the entire international community.\u201d<\/p>\n

An estimated USD5 trillion worth of goods are transported through South China Sea shipping lanes each year, including more than half the world\u2019s annual merchant fleet tonnage and a third of all maritime traffic worldwide.<\/p>\n

Japan, while not a claimant to West Philippine Sea, relies on the unimpeded passage through the disputed waters that China is entirely claiming as its own.<\/p>\n

It also has a territorial dispute with China in the East China Sea.<\/p>\n

However, the Japanese leader said that he agreed to support a rule of law-based peaceful resolution to regional disputes after a firm exchange of views with Duterte.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe agreed to elevate cooperative relations to a higher level to address not only bilateral issues but also to work toward a resolution of regional challenges,\u201d Abe said.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Duterte said the Philippines will continue with its efforts to advance the rule of law in order to secure the waters in the region even as it seeks to build its maritime capacity and assets through its collaboration with Japan.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs maritime nations, the Philippines and Japan have a shared interest in keeping our waters safe and secure from threats of any kind. Capacity-building and assets acquisition and upgrading will be a centerpiece of this collaboration,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The President said that they will fast-track the delivery to the Philippine of key assets already in the pipeline and the acquisition of new ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we seek these new innovations to the Philippines\u2019 capabilities, we will continue to forge ahead with our efforts to advance the rule of law in order to secure the waters in our regions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am humbled by this demonstration of friendship and look forward to working closely with Prime Minister Abe on all matters of mutual interest,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2013Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday welcomed President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s efforts to improve ties with China and affirmed …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":84981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,16,95],"tags":[13135,13509,1039,13511],"class_list":["post-84911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-president-rodrigo-duterte","tag-prime-minister-shinzo-abe","tag-south-china-sea","tag-ties-with-china","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}