‘No response’ from ASEAN ministers on Ayungin clash; PH, China set to meet

FOREIGN MINISTERS. Manila hosts ASEAN foreign ministers for the 59th AMM. ASEAN 2026 The lack of a response is because the Philippines and China are still 'discussing' the issue, says Foreign Affairs Secretary Maria Theresa Lazaro MANILA, Philippines – Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Maria Theresa Lazaro said on Tuesday, July 21, she raised a recent confrontation between Chinese and Filipino personnel at Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal with her counterparts in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), but they “did not respond.” “I was the one who presented it as part of the discussion… but the foreign ministers did not respond to that position that I made because I think everything is still being discussed between the two parties,” said Lazaro in a huddle with media late Tuesday, following the retreat session between ASEAN foreign ministers in Manila. On July 20, or just as foreign ministers from all over the bloc began holding high-level meetings in Manila, a Filipino soldier sustained a gash after the China Coast Guard (CCG) hit him with a “wooden baton,” according to the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The confrontation took place just over 20 yards from the BRP Sierra Madre, an active-service warship that was run aground at Ayungin Shoal in 1999 and serves as a Philippine military outpost. It was the first major confrontation between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea since July 2024, when the China Coast Guard rammed a Philippine boat moored to the Sierra Madre during a resupply mission, severing a Filipino soldier’s thumb. Lazaro is schedule to meet separately with her counterparts from the United States and China — US State Secretary Marco Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi — who are both in Manila for the ASEAN meetings. The retreat was the second of two meetings the foreign ministers were scheduled to attend on July 21. In ASEAN, the plenary is the more formal gathering, typically devoted to reviewing progress on previously agreed goals and resulting in the issuance of a joint statement. A retreat, meanwhile, is considered a more “informal” session where more sensitive subjects, such as pressing geopolitical and regional issues, are discussed. “There was a statement, of course, made on the South China Sea by me and the other various ministers but I think what was really emphatic about was the Code of Conduct (COC). Almost all have really focused themselves on the development that has happened in the COC between ASEAN and China,” added Lazaro. The Philippines, as ASEAN chair, hopes to conclude negotiations on a code of conduct (COC) before its turn ends. The COC is intended to set rules for ASEAN and China to follow to avoid an escalation of tensions in the South China Sea. Several ASEAN members, including the Philippines, are claimants in the South China Sea. Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea as its territory, even if international law says this cannot be the case. On July 21, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. summoned to Malacañang Chinese ambassador Jing Quan over the Ayungin Shoal incident. Tensions between the two countries have been steadily rising in the past month. Beijing sanctioned Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. over his statements on China, making him the second Marcos Cabinet member to be under sanction. Former senator Francis Tolentino, Marcos’ new labor chief, was sanctioned in 2025 after his Senate term expired. Various government agencies, including the Department of Foreign Affairs led by Lazaro, also criticized China after state-run China Daily released a video, widely seen as racist, that portrayed the Philippines as a monkey in its critique of the landmark 2016 arbitral award. – Rappler.com How does this make you feel? Loading