Dr Kelvin Yii said the country’s dispute with China over the South China Sea has been ongoing for a long time.
KUCHING (April 6): It is imperative that Malaysia takes a strong position and stature based on international laws over the country’s maritime features, rights and sovereignty, said Dr Kelvin Yii.
The Bandar Kuching MP said the country’s dispute with China over the South China Sea has been ongoing for a long time.
“These involve overlapping claims over maritime features such as territorial disputes, and overlapping claims over maritime rights, namely the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) between four major claimants – China, Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia.
“To achieve a proper resolution, diplomatic negotiations may be needed but Malaysia must position itself strongly together with Asean to step up and intensify negotiations on a Code of Conduct (COC) to manage the disputes,” he said when asked for comments on Prime Minister Datuk Anwar Ibrahim’s recent statement that Malaysia was prepared to negotiate with China over the South China Sea dispute.
Yii said the issue was of public and security interest as many of the disputed regions are situated close to Sarawak.
“It is therefore of our interest to safeguard our territory and resources.
“Even with the need for diplomacy, we must stand our ground and go into any negotiations based on what was decided in the international arbitration ruling in 2016,” he said.
Anwar on Monday said Malaysia was open to talks with China over the dispute concerning the South China Sea.
Bernama in its report quoted the prime minister as saying that the issue was raised at the four-eyed meeting he had with Chinese president Xi Jinping during his official visit to China, being that Petronas has the largest platform for oil exploration operating in the area.
He said China was also staking claim over the area but if the condition required both countries to negotiate, Malaysia was ready to do so.