The minister of Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration, Wang Chung-yi, says he is optimistic that Taiwan and the Philippines will resolve their differences over a fisheries agreement.
Wang was speaking on Wednesday during an interview with RTI. He said the exclusive economic zones of Taiwan and the Philippines overlap with each other. He also said the two sides have different views about what constitutes their territorial waters.
"[The Philippines] sees the area between its territorial waters and 24 nautical miles beyond the baseline as part of its territorial waters as well. In that case, the southernmost part of our fishing vessels’ operational area would be inside the Philippines’ territorial waters. This is something we cannot agree to," said Wang.
"The two sides still don’t see eye to eye on this particular issue, but of course we’ll have to find a way to get beyond that. If the two sides are unwilling to be sensible and compromise, it’ll take quite a lot of effort before we can sign the agreement. But I believe that there’ll be a breakthrough. We’re optimistic about that," he said.