SYDNEY, July 25 (Xinhua) -- World powers must be careful of a ruling by the arbitral tribunal of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which might also put their own exclusive economic zones (EEZs) 'claims into question.
The tribunal that handled the South China Sea arbitration at the unilateral request of the former Philippine government, which was not sanctioned by the United Nations or the International Court of Justice (ICJ), claimed all features in the South China Sea are mere rocks, not islands, and thus have no rights to an exclusive economic zone.
"By international standards, clearly a number of features in the (Nansha Islands) are fully entitled to island (status)... (but) the court has ruled against that.. ignoring academic writings that support the view that there were true islands in the (Nansha Islands)," retired Royal Australian Navy Commodore, now professorial research fellow at the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS), Sam Bateman recently told Xinhua.
"That's the part of the ruling that I think will cause a lot of ongoing angst."
"There's going to be a lot of discussion on that aspect, particularly in terms of its implication for other similar features around the world."
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