Submitting benefits vs disputes over Sabah and beyond

KOTA KINABALU — Last Monday saw Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hassan calling on Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in what may be said to be yet another friendly exchange between two neighboring countries that have generally maintained cordial and productive relations at all levels, both public and private. At about the same time, the Philippines was reported to have formally submitted a request to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (UNCLCS) to extend the Philippine continental shelf from the Philippine coastlines facing the South China Sea. From the Philippine perspective, this submission was supposed to aim toward securing Philippine rights to undersea resources in the region concerned.

It is well known that large parts of the South China Sea are embroiled in disputes over territorial sovereignty, with rival claims from at least China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia. There were also similar continental-shelf extension submissions made by other disputing parties before, which were typically met by opposition from other disputing parties that felt their claims were thus affected. So, it would not come as a surprise if the latest Philippine submission to UNCLCS would be met with opposition from other disputing parties. That is only to be expected as disputing parties must publicly state their opposing positions in such matters involving albeit only derivative rights from their respective territorial sovereignty claims, such that these claims would, in a sense, remain alive from both legal and diplomatic perspectives. So, from a macroscopic point of view, the latest Philippine submission to UNCLCS and any and all forthcoming opposition thereof may be considered to be business as usual by South China Sea disputants in their ongoing efforts to stake their claims on this region.