Foreign experts around the world have voiced their support for a diplomatic settlement in the East Sea following the final ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague against China.
The PCA issued a ruling on July 12 on the case the Philippines brought against China , invalidating China’s “nine-dash” claim to a large swath of the East Sea.
According to Professor Eric David from Universite Libre de Bruxelles (the Free University of Brussels) in Belgium, China had violated international law by interfering with the Philippines’s fishing activities in its exclusive economic zone.
Professor David said China also has no right to impose an air defence identification zone (ADIZ) over disputed islands on the East Sea as a country is allowed to establish the breadth of its territorial waters to a limit not exceeding 12 nautical miles (22.2 kilometres) out from its coastline.
On the other hand, China only has exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its legal territory, he explained.
He stressed that the ruling issued by the PCA is highly significant for countries in the region, including the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.
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