On July 8, 2024, at the second Japan - Philippines Foreign and Defense Ministerial Meeting (“2+2”) in Manila, the two countries signed the Japan - Philippines Reciprocal Access Agreement” (hereinafter referred to as RAA). This is the first RAA that the Philippines has signed with a foreign country, the third RAA that Japan has, also the first RAA that Japan has signed with a Southeast Asian nation.
On June 14, the Philippines submitted to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) a submission on the extended continental shelf...
Since 1999, China has enacted an annual fishing ban for two or three months in the summer in the North-Western part of the South China Sea. This year (2011), the ban took place from May 16th to August the 1st and in an area between the latitude 12° North to the North and longitude 113° East to the West.[1]Any fishing vessel that goes into this area during the banis subjected to fines and its catches and gear confiscated.[2]According to Chinese news and scholars, this fishing ban is necessary to protect...
China announced its new Coast Guard Law containing worrisome provisions that need further clarification. Japan, a prominent claimant in the East China Sea, feels threatened by this law.