US President Barack Obama told his Southeast Asian counterparts on Thursday that last July’s arbitral ruling that invalidated China’s claims to most of the South China Sea has “helped ease tension” and “built stability” in the region.
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At the summit in Laos, Obama mentioned the decision by the Hague which ruled against the claims of China over the islands in the area.
“I realize this raises tensions”, Obama said earlier as he met with ASEAN leaders, referring to a recent global arbitration ruling against China on the maritime dispute.
Obama said that he recognizes that the ruling raises tensions, but added that he looks forward to discussing how the concerned parties can constructively move forward to lower tensions while promoting democracy and stability. “We stressed the importance for the parties concerned to resolve their disputes by peaceful means, in accordance with universally recognized principles of worldwide laws”, it said.
Obama brought the issue back on the agenda after attempts by other leaders at the summit to sweep the issue under the carpet.
If China did build an island at the shoal, it could lead to a military outpost just 230 kilometres (140 miles) from the main Philippine island, where USA forces are stationed. In a joint statement issued by leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, members were expected to issue a mild rebuke to China without referencing it by name.
Members of the EAS are the Asean member countries, Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, the United States of America and Russian Federation. Cambodia, for example, remains in China’s camp, as does Laos to a large extent, preventing any robust statement from the consensus-bound ASEAN group.
The Philippines filed the arbitration case against China in January 2013 to seek clarification of its maritime entitlements in the South China Sea under the 1982 convention, following China’s aggressive assertion of its claims there.
Speaking on the sidelines of a regional summit in Vientiane, Laos, Liu Zhenmin said that China and the Philippines had had “thousands of years” of good relations.
ASEAN leaders on Wednesday released a statement saying they were “seriously concerned” over recent developments in the sea. Leaders from left, Myanmar’s State Counsellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, Vietnam’s President Tran Dai Quang, Laos Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, Philippine’s President Rodrigo Duterte, Brunei Foreign Minister and Prime Minister Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo and Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak.
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The U.S. military has also expressed concern over the possibility that China might turn Scarborough into another island, something that would give Beijing’s forces greater control over a swath of the South China Sea used as a passageway to the Taiwan Strait. More than 2,000 suspected drug users and dealers have died since Duterte took office two months ago. At the time, Chinese President Xi Jinping said he would not accept any proposition or action based on the ruling issued unilaterally initiated by the former Philippine government.
