Also wishing to strengthen U.S. ties with the regional grouping in areas such as technology and innovation that would help facilitate economic growth, Obama “expressed his supportive stance over TPP talks in the region”, Werachon said, referring to the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement signed by 12 countries, including Japan but not China. A reclaimed island at Scarborough Shoal could provide China a military base close to the Philippines’ main island of Luzon.
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China had vowed to ignore the ruling, describing it as “waste paper”.
Expanding that presence with a military outpost is vital to achieving China’s ambitions of controlling the sea, security analysts said.
The use of the phrase “some leaders” in the two statements underscores the fundamental problem ASEAN has in dealing with China – not all its members are willing to scold Beijing. “We stressed the importance for the parties concerned to resolve their disputes by peaceful means, in accordance with universally recognized principles of global laws”, it said.
Earlier Wednesday, Obama blamed the failure to pass the TPP on the US presidential election campaign, saying it’s hard to get things done during a political season.
“The landmark arbitration ruling in July, which is binding, helped to clarify maritime rights in the region”, Obama was quoted as telling the summit in Laos, as reported by Rappler (via an AFP report).
The issue of ownership of territories in the South China Sea has come to dominate ASEAN summit meetings in recent years.
“Several leaders remained seriously concerned over recent developments in the South China Sea”, says the draft.
China and ASEAN countries have made positive efforts in implementing DOC and the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC), he said, noting that before the ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting in July 2017, the two sides will complete drafting a COC framework so as to let consultations enter a substantive discussion phase.
The area is just 230 kilometres (140 miles) from the main island of the Philippines, where United States forces are stationed. In addition to Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have contesting claims on these waters.
Obama made history by becoming the first sitting USA president to visit Laos earlier this week.
The Philippines military this week released images of Chinese ships it said were capable of dredging sand around the Scarborough Shoal – a small but strategic reef and fertile fishing ground 130 miles (200 kilometers) west from the Philippine island of Luzon.
According to those reports, the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has signalled he is prepared to hold talks with China to settle the dispute and he has asked the former president Fidel Ramos to hold “backchannel talks” with Chinese officials.
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Japan and the United States urged China on Thursday to resolve disputes in the South China Sea with the Philippines and other smaller neighbors in line with an arbitration ruling in July that invalidated Beijing’s claims to nearly the whole of the sea.
