In another display of the high stakes at play, the host of the talks, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, issued a statement that carefully avoided the July 12 court ruling against Beijing.
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Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) emphasized full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC).
One of China’s main cellphone carriers has extended 4G service to several disputed South China Sea islands following China’s dismissal of the arbitration panel’s ruling.
Manila agreed to drop the reference to the ruling in the communique, one ASEAN diplomat said on Monday, in an effort to prevent the disagreement leading to the group failing to issue a statement. Cambodia and Laos were later fingered as being behind moves to block it.
BEIJING-China has set up a 15 million yuan ($2.25 million or 239 million yen) environmental protection fund for the South China Sea, having already spent double that in the past four years, the Xinhua state news agency said on Monday.
Following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s initiative to establish economic partnership between ASEAN, Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Russia will raise the issue of concrete ways to fulfill this task, including by formalizing contacts between the Eurasian Economic Commission and ASEAN Secretariat.
Some countries are pushing to include a reference that urges all countries to fully “respect diplomatic and legal process”, he said – in line with statements released by the European Union, the United States and Japan following the UN-backed decision. That statement specifically mentioned China by name – a first for the bloc when calling for a lowering of tensions.
In recent months Washington has sent naval vessels close to reefs and outcrops claimed by Beijing to assert the principle of freedom of navigation, sparking anger in China which has built a series of artificial islands capable of supporting military operations.
In sum, though ASEAN does deserve credit for adopting a joint communique when it initially appeared that it might not do so at all, it is clear that it failed to meet even the minimum threshold of what could be reasonably expected of it on this question at the AMM meeting.
VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday stressed the importance of complying with a rules-based worldwide system in a meeting with his counterparts from South East Asia shortly after they were unable to agree on a statement criticizing China for territorial expansion in the South China Sea.
China, which refused to take part in the arbitration or implement the tribunal’s ruling, has insisted the disputes will not affect its relations with Asean. Anifah had other urgent matters to attend to, said a foreign ministry official who asked not to be identified, citing government policy. That and other findings invalidated much of what China has called its historic claims to the resource-rich sea.
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“The U.S.is trying to calm things down while at the same time encouraging support for the arbitration ruling”, said Jay L. Batongbacal, director of the University of the Philippines Institute of Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea. She also would not say if the communique would refer to the South China Sea, or the decision of an global tribunal earlier this month that said China’s expansive claims in the region are illegal.
