MANILA • The Philippines' Foreign Minister ordered the country's mission to the United Nations yesterday to vote for China's candidate to fill one of five seats at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that will become vacant next year.

"You are instructed to cast the Philippine vote for the Chinese candidate to the International Court of Justice. That is your only clear instruction," Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin said on Twitter, without elaborating.

Four of the eight candidates contesting the five positions are incumbent judges whose nine-year terms are due to expire on Feb 5 next year.

One of the four is Chinese judge Xue Hanqin, who is also the vice-president of the ICJ, also known as the World Court.

The ICJ, the highest United Nations court for inter-state disputes, is composed of 15 judges elected to nine-year terms of office by the UN General Assembly and Security Council. Judges are eligible for re-election.

A UN document dated June 29 showed that the Philippines had nominated another candidate, Japanese judge Yuji Iwasawa, but not Judge Xue.

The Foreign Ministry said the Philippines can support more than one candidate at Wednesday's election as there will be five vacancies.

Since coming to power in 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte has pursued closer relations with Beijing.

However, much of the rest of the Philippines, particularly its military, has harboured a deep mistrust of China over what it sees as intrusions into its territory, bullying of its fishermen and denial of access to its energy resources.

In recent months, Mr Duterte's government has started to shift back towards the United States - which remains widely popular among Filipinos - as Beijing has increased its assertiveness in the South China Sea and the Philippine economy has suffered due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

REUTERS, BLOOMBERG