The White House encouraged all parties engaged in a maritime dispute over control of the South China Sea to acknowledge the “final and binding” nature of a ruling by an international tribunal that China has no legal basis to claim historic rights to the bulk of the area.
The decision was a win for the Philippines in its dispute with China, although Chinese President Xi Jinping immediately rejected the ruling from the Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration.
Presidential press secretary Josh Earnest said the ruling from the tribunal is 500 pages, so U.S. government attorneys are still reviewing it.
But based on the “well-established process that’s codified in the law of the sea convention, this tribunal ruling is final and binding on both parties,” Earnest told reporters traveling with the president to Dallas on Air Force One.
While the United States has no claims to the South China Sea, he said, America is interested in a desire “for a peaceful resolution to disputes in competing claims in the region.”
Obama and other administration officials have been forcefully calling for preserving freedom of navigation for U.S. ships for strategic reasons and because this is a “route for billions of dollars in commerce” important to the U.S. economy that should not be interrupted, Earnest said.
