The Philippines and Taiwan could sign an agreement to cooperate on law enforcement in fisheries matters in their overlapping waters in July, the Philippines’ representative to Taiwan said Friday.
Antonio Basilio said that his government will hold a Cabinet meeting next week or the week after to discuss the content of the draft agreement.
The Philippine envoy made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions on the sidelines of an event in Taipei to celebrate the 117th anniversary of the Philippine Independence Day.
The Cabinet meeting is aimed at discussing whether to approve the content of the draft agreement, according to Basilio.
“We will try to have it signed by the end of July,” he said.
“At this stage, I am optimistic that we will be able to do that.”
In his address at the event, he also said that Taiwan and the Philippines are “each other’s closest neighbor”, and the possibility of misunderstanding from such proximity do arise from time to time.
But Basilio said: “the strength of our long standing friendship and our shared values of democracy and rule of law have enabled us to prevent these from escalating. This experience has given us the confidence to squarely face the issues and to prevent these from re-occurring.”
He cited as an example of the two sides’ willingness to prevent disputes from escalating the fact that they are close to reaching an agreement on law enforcement on fisheries matters.
The agreement covers a consensus reached by the two countries, to not use force or violence when patrolling fishing grounds, to establish a mechanism to inform each other in the event of fishery incidents, and to release detained fishermen and boats as soon as possible.
Taiwan and the Philippines have been negotiating the pact since late 2013 — one of a series of steps taken to improve relations after Philippine Coast Guard officers shot up a Taiwanese fishing boat on May 9, 2013 in waters where the two countries’ exclusive economic zones overlap, killing a Taiwanese fisherman.
On Friday, Basilio also lauded Taiwan’s contributions to maintaining peace and stability in the region.
Asked about the Philippines’ stance on President Ma Ying-jeou (???)’s South China Sea Peace Initiative, he said his country supports peaceful settlements of the disputes and respect for the rule of law.
Proposed by Ma in May, the initiative calls for putting aside differences and promoting the joint development of resources in the disputed resource-rich region.
Several countries, including Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, China and Vietnam, claim all or parts of the South China Sea.
The Central News Agency