Taiwan affirms South China Sea sovereignty after Manila move

Taipei, Aug. 2 (CNA) The Republic of China (Taiwan) government on Sunday reiterated its sovereignty claim over islands in the South China Sea after the Philippines deposited its official nautical chart with the United Nations related to an atoll claimed by Manila, Taipei and Beijing.

In addition to reaffirming the ROC's claim over the South China Sea, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said any disputes in the South China Sea "should be resolved peacefully in accordance with international law and the law of the sea."

It also insisted that "Taiwan should be included in multilateral dispute settlement mechanisms."

MOFA's statement was released after Manila deposited its official nautical chart of Scarborough Shoal with the U.N. last week to reinforce its claim over the atoll, which lies roughly 220 kilometers from the west coast of central Luzon Island.

"The deposit was made pursuant to Article 16 of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)," the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Friday.

The Law of the Sea "requires coastal States to give due publicity to official charts or lists of geographical coordinates showing the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured," it said.

The chart depicted the outer limits of its 12-nautical-mile territorial sea and 24-nautical-mile contiguous zone around the shoal based on its baseline, which corresponds to the low water line along a coast.

Scarborough Shoal, known as Huangyan Dao in China, Bajo de Masinloc in the Philippines, and Democracy Reef in Taiwan, is claimed by all three governments.

China's Foreign Ministry said Friday it would not accept the Philippines' establishment of baselines around Scarborough Shoal, calling the move "illegal and invalid."