No solution in sight to Panatag dispute

From: inquirer.net

No one blinked between Interior Secretary Mar Roxas II and Chinese Vice President Xi Jingping on their countries’ territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea on Friday.

But despite reports of the willingness of both sides to improve their relations, “substantial gaps” continued to separate the Philippines and China in their search for a solution to their dispute over Panatag Shoal in the West Philippine Sea.

“There was a mutual assertion of sovereignty,” a Malacañang official said in an interview with the Inquirer, explaining the “mutual expressions of positions and viewpoints” by both sides during the meeting between Roxas and Xi.

The Palace official, who asked not to be named, said Roxas and Xi took “divergent positions” in their discussion of the Panatag Shoal dispute. When asked if China insisted on its claim of sovereignty in almost the entire West Philippine Sea, the official said “neither side was expected to give up its claim.”

Without elaborating, the official described the extent of disagreement between the two countries as a “chasm,” indicating that China refused to recognize the Philippines’ rights to Panatag Shoal and that the Philippines insisted the shoal was within its exclusive economic zone.

The Palace official explained that what Roxas achieved in the meeting was the re-establishment of direct links to China’s leadership since Xi was China’s president-in-waiting.

“After mutual expressions and positions were stated, no conclusions were drawn,” said the Palace official.###