Singapore is calling on parties involved in the South China Sea dispute to adhere to international law as its top diplomat, who is visiting Manila, shared the Philippines' concern over developments in the waters.

Singapore, a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), made its stand after its foreign minister, Vivian Balakrishnan, sat down with Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Enrique Manalo to discuss developments in the region as well as both countries' bilateral relations.

Balakrishnan said that Singapore, as a tiny city state, believes in the importance of upholding international law—a pronouncement that comes amid China's continued claim over and aggressive actions in the West Philippine Sea.

He also said Singapore believes in a country's maritime entitlement that is set out under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)—which practically rules the Philippines' jurisdiction over its 200 nautical mile-exclusive economic zone or the West Philippine Sea, which China claims to be its own.

"If it is just the law of the jungle, where the powerful do what they will, and the weak suffer what they must, and the future will be very bleak," the diplomat said Tuesday, April 16, in his remarks before the Philippine media.

He said Singapore has been "a long standing supporter and advocate of the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas," and it believes that it "sets up a comprehensive international legal framework, within which all activities in the oceans and seas should be carried out."

Although it is not a claimant state of any part of the South China Sea, Balakrishnan said Singapore, a trade-dependent country, is still monitoring the developments with concern as South China Sea is the world's busiest waterway.

It is also crucial for Singapore, the region's, and the world's growth, he added.

"The moment you have escalation of tension... it will immediately impair and impede trade... it will certainly impact our economy and it will dampen confidence in what in fact should be multiple decades of growth and progress that we all expect and our people need in order for us to achieve the economic transformation," he added.

So he called on all parties to be "taking open channels of communication."

Balakrishnan said ASEAN has always been united and central in its stand, which is to uphold UNCLOS.

He also believed that issues of sovereignty are "difficult to resolve," and sometimes "it may take more than one generation" to do so.

"So we continue to advocate for peaceful resolution of dispute for avoiding the use of or the threat of force to resolve this very difficult, long-term problems," Balakrishnan added.

On the other hand, Manalo denied China's repeated allegations that the Philippines had, for multiple times, failed to comply with agreements over the contested waters.

"I don't really know what China means when they say we haven't been following any commitments," Manalo said.

Recently, China made another claim against the Philippines. It said Manila failed again to follow a "new model" that was supposedly agreed on in the management of disputes in the South China Sea.

"We've always said that the Philippines, in our dispute or in our approach to the issues in the West Philippine Sea, has always always adhered to the rule of law," Manalo added.