Manila calls on four ASEAN countries to unite in dealing with China.

According to Kyodo News on June 24, Philippine President Benigno Aquino announced that Manila has resumed its plan to call for a meeting among the four ASEAN countries that claim sovereignty over the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea – the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei – to formulate a common position on how to deal with China's increasingly assertive claims to the archipelago.

Speaking to reporters on a Philippine Airlines flight from Tokyo to Hiroshima as part of his visit to Japan, President Aquino said he had informed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of the plan.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino. (Source: AFP/VNA)

Aquino said: “We told them that we would discuss with our ASEAN brother countries, especially the three other claimant states that are preparing to hold a meeting with China, so that we can have a common position.”

Last week, Philippine Foreign Minister Albert del Rosario said that Manila was trying to “build consensus among the claimant states and hope that the parties will agree so that we can schedule a meeting.”

He said the Philippines is ready to host this meeting, which he hopes will take place before the ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting, scheduled for August in Myanmar.

He affirmed that Manila would push for a joint statement calling on China to stop land reclamation work in disputed waters, such as Johnson South and Fiery Cross reefs in the Spratly Islands.

According to VNA