"[W]e stand up to China in the things that matter without fail and are acknowledged by Vietnam as the lead in the South China Sea disputes," he wrote on his Twitter account, which he also uses for official statements. Forbes, too, has written that Hanoi has been "taking the lead once again, among its neighbors, in the fight to contain China’s South China Sea ambitions." Vietnam also has a maritime dispute with China in the South China Sea and deputy foreign minister Le Hoai Trung is quoted in a Reuters report in November as saying Vietnam prefers negotiations but could explore legal action over the dispute. In 2016, the Philippines won a favorable ruling from The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which said there is no legal basis for Beijing’s nine-dash line, which covers a large part of the South China Sea. Duterte, who announced an "independent foreign policy in 2016, was quoted as saying on a visit to China that "[T]here are three of us against the world - China, Philippines and Russia.

Source: Philippine Star December 08, 2019 07:07 UTC