Beijing poised for `de facto control` of South China Sea: Philippines
Last Updated: Sunday, April 26, 2015 - 13:32
Kuala Lumpur: Beijing is poised to take "de facto control" of the South China Sea, the Philippines warned on Sunday as it called on fellow Southeast Asian countries to "finally stand up" to their massive neighbour.
Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei claim parts of the strategic South China Sea, but Beijing claims nearly all of it and its increasingly strident assertions of its territorial ambitions have caused concern in the region and beyond.
"(China) is poised to consolidate de facto control of the South China Sea," Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told his fellow Southeast Asian ministers at an annual meeting in Kuala Lumpur.
Del Rosario singled out a campaign of land reclamation on disputed reefs that has raised the spectre of permanent Chinese bases far out in the ocean.
"The threats posed by these massive reclamations are real and cannot be ignored or denied," he said, according to a transcript of his remarks, warning of "urgent and far-reaching" geopolitical implications.
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