The Australian government rejects any claims by China that are inconsistent with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), in particular, maritime claims that do not adhere to its rules on baselines, maritime zones and classification of features.
Regarding China’s claim to ‘historic rights’ or ‘maritime rights and interests’ as established in the ‘long course of historical practice’ in the South China Sea, the Australian government cited the 2016 South China Sea arbitration between the Philippines and China that invalidated these claims due to their inconsistency with UNCLOS, and emphasized the award’s binding nature as per international law.
The government stated that China’s drawing of straight baselines and archipelagic straight baselines does not have a legal basis because such baselines, as per UNCLOS, may only be drawn in specific circumstances. Consequently, the government rejected China’s claims to internal waters, territorial sea, exclusive economic zone and continental shelf based on such baselines.
The government said that features such as artificial islands cannot attain the status of an island, and cited a UNCLOS provision stating that artificial islands do not have territorial sea and do not affect delimitation of maritime zones.
Importantly, the government rejected China’s claims of sovereignty over Paracel and Spratly Islands as being ‘widely recognized by the international community’.
China’s claims over the sea are contested by Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. By this letter, Australia has aligned itself with several other States including the United States and India which had earlier this month rejected the claims.
The Link LonkJuly 27, 2020 at 04:33AM
https://ift.tt/2WYDeg9
Australia rejects China's claims over South China Sea - JURIST
https://ift.tt/2CoSmg4
Sea
/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/CZF6NULMVVMEXHOP7JK5BSPQUM.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment