1. between China and the Philippines gives the United States more influence in the maritime sovereignty dispute, experts have told VOA in the past. Manila has longstanding, close military ties with Washington, which sees the Philippines as one in a string of Western Pacific allies.28 May
2.The administrative order asserts the Philippine claim over its EEZ in the South China Sea which conveys the Philippine government's position that it has sovereign rights under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea over the West Philippine Sea area and "inherent power and right to designate
