BANGKOK — Increasingly frequent confrontations between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea this year should impress upon Southeast Asian countries the urgency of a long-delayed code of conduct in the contested waters, Philippine Foreign Secret Enrique Manalo said on Friday.
“We very much want to find ways where we can at least manage or de-escalate the situation,” Manalo said, in an interview with Nikkei Asia. “Unfortunately, of course … we have been victims of water cannoning, ramming, collision, side-swiping. We don’t want to be in a situation where, one day, that will spiral into something else.”
