An international court has given China six months to respond to legal claims by the Philippines regarding disputes between the countries over the South China Sea.
The Philippines in March presented a 4,000-page “memorial” to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, asking the tribunal to invalidate the “nine-dash line” – a demarcation on Chinese maps that includes much of the South China Sea and suggests that China claims most of the waters.
China has refused to participate in the case. But the tribunal gave it until December 15 to file a memorial, citing an obligation to give “each party a full opportunity to be heard and to present its case”.