Admin l Monday, August 07, 2017
MANILA, PHILIPPIANS – Three nations, the United States, Australia and Japan have pledged to impose strong autonomous sanctions on North Korea as a result of its consistent missile launch culminating in the launch of Intercontinental Ballistic Missile on July 4 and July 28, 2017.
Ministers of the three nations made the revelation at the conclusion of the Australia-Japan-United States Trilateral Strategic Dialogue Ministerial meeting in Manila, Philippines.
The sanctions they said will affect export control to detect and disrupt North Korean Weapons of Mass Distruction (WMD) proliferation networks.
The ministers also urged ASEAN member states to maximize pressure on North Korea and called on North Korea to immediately and fully comply with relevant UNSC resolutions and the Joint Statement of the Six-Party Talks of September 2005.
The ministers also called on North Korea to end its systematic human rights violations and abuses and to immediately release all foreign nationals being held in North Korea, including Japanese abductees and American citizens.
The ministers underscored the importance of upholding the rules-based order, called on all states to respect freedom of navigation and overflight and other internationally lawful uses of the seas, and reiterated that the three countries will continue to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows.
The ministers expressed serious concerns over maritime disputes in the South China Sea (SCS)and voiced their strong opposition to coercive unilateral actions that could alter the status quo and increase tensions.
The ministers urged SCS claimants to refrain from land reclamation, construction of outposts, militarization of disputed features, and undertaking unilateral actions that cause permanent physical change to the marine environment in areas pending delimitation.
The ministers called on all claimants to make and clarify their maritime claims in accordance with the international law of the sea as reflected in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and to resolve disputes peacefully in accordance with international law. The ministers called on China and the Philippines to abide by the Arbitral Tribunal’s 2016 Award in the Philippines-China arbitration, as it is final and legally binding on both parties.
The ministers noted the significance of the UNCLOS dispute settlement regime and the Tribunal’s decision in discussions among parties in their efforts to peacefully resolve their maritime disputes in the SCS.
The ministers urged ASEAN member states and China to fully and effectively implement the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and acknowledged the announced consensus on a framework for the Code of Conduct for the South China Sea (COC). The ministers further urged ASEAN member states and China to ensure that the COC be finalized in a timely manner, and that it be legally binding, meaningful, effective, and consistent with international law.
