Philippine judge ruled out possibility of any deals with China on gas production before settling territorial dispute

Beijing. March 7. Silkroadnews - Any deal between the Philippines and a Chinese firm to jointly explore for gas in the Reed Bank of the South China Sea will be illegal unless China recognizes the southeast Asian nation’s sovereign rights there, Channel NewsAsia reports referring to Reuters.
Manila has identified two sites suitable for joint exploration and now both countries are looking for a way to resolve diplomatic and legal disputes related to the joint development of the deposit without affecting the issue of sovereignty.
Rights to the Reed Bank are claimed by both parties, but international law states it falls within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines. China insists the field is within the controversial demarcation line and claims its historic rights to this territory.
Antonio Carpio, the acting top judge of the Supreme Court, said the Philippines’ ministry of energy has the right to negotiate with the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) as a possible subcontractor.
“There’s no problem as long as CNOOC will recognize that that is our exclusive economic zone. But that is the problem, because CNOOC will not recognize,” he said.
According to publication, the tribunal, in its 2016 ruling, invalidated China’s nine-dash line, making clear that the Reed Bank fell within the Philippines’ EEZ, and that Manila had sovereign rights to resources there. China is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) but it does not recognize the Hague court ruling.