The United States welcomes a fisheries agreement that was signed recently between Taiwan and the Philippines to address fishing disputes in their overlapping economic waters, an official with the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said Thursday.
The Agreement Concerning the Facilitation of Cooperation on Law Enforcement in Fisheries Matters “serves as a model for the region on resolving maritime issues through peaceful means,” said Sonia Urbom, spokeswoman for the AIT, which represents U.S. interests in Taiwan in the absence of bilateral diplomatic ties.
“This agreement reflects the principles that are at the heart of the U.S. efforts on maritime issues, namely, respect for international law and peaceful management of disputes,” she said.
Urbom’s remarks came after Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed earlier in the day that the long-pending agreement had been signed by Taiwan’s representative to the Philippines Gary Song-Huann Lin (???) and his Philippine counterpart Antonio Basilio on Nov. 5 in Taipei.
The agreement contains seven articles and includes three important points of consensus that have already been implemented — avoiding the use of violence or unnecessary force, establishing an emergency notification system, and setting up a prompt release mechanism, according to a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry.
Aimed at seeking peaceful solutions to fishery disputes, the agreement, nevertheless, does not touch on the contiguous zone issue.
That and other outstanding issues will be discussed in a second round of technical working group meetings early next year, Foreign Minister David Lin (???) told reporters.
In the first round on Nov. 5 shortly after the signing, the technical groups worked out the details of two articles in the agreement.
They reached consensus on the establishment of a system for each side to give one hour’s notice to the other before taking law enforcement action, in cases where a fishing vessel from the other side is believed to be operating illegally in an overlapping exclusive economic zone.
The working groups also agreed that detained fishing vessels and crews should be released within three days.
Taiwan and the Philippines had been negotiating the fisheries pact since late 2013 as part of an effort to improve relations after Philippine Coast Guard officers shot up a Taiwanese fishing boat on May 9, 2013, killing a Taiwanese fisherman, in an overlapping exclusive economic zone.
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