“We remain seriously concerned over recent and ongoing developments and took note of the concerns expressed by some leaders on the land reclamations”, said a joint statement at the end of their summit on Wednesday.
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Southeast Asian leaders have softened their stance on China’s territorial claims in the South China, handing Beijing a diplomatic victory.
Officials said talks between regional leaders and Li on Wednesday went smoothly, but there was no reference to a July court ruling in The Hague that declared some of China’s artificial islands illegal and invalidated its claims to nearly the entire waterway.
The landmark arbitral tribunal ruling on the South China Sea is “binding”, United States President Barack Obama stressed during a summit with Asean leaders.
US President Barack Obama on Thursday emphasised the “binding” nature of the July ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration over Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea after China rejected the verdict as null and void. More than 2,000 suspected drug users and dealers have died since Duterte took office two months ago. Obama brought that up again. Manila says China’s blockade of the shoal is a violation of global law.
“International disputes should inspire us to work together with adherence to the rule of law and worldwide governing bodies”, Duterte said, according to Andanar.
“With respect to maritime issues, we’ll continue to work to ensure that disputes are resolved peacefully including in the South China Sea”.
Mr Lee said the USA had helped build “a regional order where all countries big and small play by the same rules, compete and resolve their disputes peacefully, including in the South China Sea”.
China has turned shoals and coral reefs into seven man-made islands and built airstrips capable of handling military aircraft on three of them.
According to the draft chairman’s statement, seen by Kyodo News, ASEAN leaders are expected to “welcome” China’s vision of completing “the implementation of the code of conduct’s early harvest measures by the end of 2016” and “consultation on the COC outline in the first half of 2017 under circumstances without disturbances and to fast track COC consultation”.
The spokesperson claimed that the United States authorities had said they won’t take sides in territorial disputes and would support talks between the concerned parties. 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. China claims virtually the entire sea as its own, citing historical reasons. China is involved in a raging dispute with the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei over ownership of territory in the SCS, a busy waterway through which India’s 50 per cent trade passes.
China had insisted repeatedly this week it was not undertaking any island-building activities at the shoal.
However, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said the discussion on the conflict at the event was “untimely and inappropriate”.
Li made no direct mention of Scarborough Shoal in the comments provided by the foreign ministry, but Beijing said on Wednesday there had been no new activity there and “some people” were spreading information that was “hyping the situation”.
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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte skipped meetings at the summit Thursday because of a migraine, his spokesman said.
