Defense Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro maintained that China’s vast territorial claims over the South China Sea overlap Manila’s sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea. 

“There is only one cause of conflict in the South China Sea, particularly in the West Philippine Sea—it it China’s illegal and unilateral attempt to appropriate most, if not all of the South China Sea, as their internal waters, pursuant to now their 10-dash line on a nebulous and unfounded claim of historic rights,” Teodoro said in a press conference in Makati City on Sunday.

Teodoro lamented China’s insistent claims on exclusive jurisdiction over the internal water that's part of the high seas, and an important seam-line of communication is the “cause of all the problems” involving the WPS. 

“They always claim they have indisputable sovereignty and jurisdiction over all these areas, against all norms of international law, and that is the sole force of tensions in the South China Sea, including areas of the West Philippines, including the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines and other German countries,” he stressed. 

Teodoro emphasized the Philippines is not provoking China. 

“We do not seek war yet we are mandated not only by our Constitution but as an obligation to our countrymen to protect whatever areas, whether it be jurisdiction or rights, that rightfully belong to the exclusive benefit of Filipinos,” he said. 

Teodoro said the Philippines upholds the United Nations Charter, the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea, and the arbitration award in favor of the Filipinos’ sovereignty over WPS. 

“We have a vinculum, which links a lot of countries together, because if a country like China is allowed to unilaterally shape and change the narrative by the use of force,  by non-reaction by a country where it can claim acquiescence to its actions, and by mis- and mal-information or disinformation—then we lose whatever has been freely and fully agreed upon by a lot of countries through UNCLOS and other important and valid legal agreements,” he added. 

Germany’s Federal Minister of DefenSe Boris Pistorius stressed the importance of advocating rules-based international order to maintain security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.

“We are focusing on maintaining the rules-based international order, securing freedom of navigation, and protecting trade routes,” he said.