Echoing Wang, Kerry said the United States also agreed to “move away from public tension” and to “turn the page” following the global tribunal’s ruling and to resolve disputes through peaceful and diplomatic means.
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“Now it is the time to test whether you are peacekeepers or troublemakers”, said Wang, referring to the three countries.
The Philippines again sought a ruling that actions taken by China, in particular its large-scale land reclamation and construction of artificial islands in the Spratly Islands area since the arbitration started, had unlawfully aggravated and extended the parties’ dispute.
The so-called arbitration case unilaterally initiated by the Philippines has soured China-Philippines relations, adversely impacted regional stability and disturbed the process of implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and accelerating negotiations for a Code of Conduct (COC) by China and ASEAN members.
VIENTIANE-Japan has urged China to accept the landmark worldwide court ruling that dismissed its territorial claims in the South China Sea, but the suggestion did not sit well with an angry Beijing.
But Asean works strictly by consensus, and Cambodia, China’s closest ally in the bloc, rejected the wording on the ruling even though it has no direct stake whatsoever in the issue.
The South China Sea is a lucrative area that contains ample oil, gas and fishery resources, while it also facilitates approximately United States dollars $5 trillion worth of trade each year (hence being one of the world’s key seaborne trade routes).
Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay leaves a meeting of the ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Vientiane, Laos July 26, 2016.
It also showed a “disturbing” push by China to continue pressing harder on the issue, by “ratcheting up the pressure” on those states, such as Cambodia and Laos, that are “effectively beholden” to it, he argued. But in the long term, the Asean’s failure to support the interests of its member states against an outsider damaged its credibility and brought into question its continued relevance as a regional force. Southeast Asia expert Ian Storey of the Iseas Yusof-Ishak Institute in Singapore is quoted saying he doubts the US would pressure the Philippines into holding talks with China on those terms.
At the East Asia Summit, the Vietnamese leader asked participating countries to support ASEAN’s centrality and establish maritime security as a priority of the EAS.
“The aim of the visit was to do that personal relationship, to have that face-to-face meeting”, Richardson said, adding that two focused on positive talks about how to improve their navy-to-navy relationship. Yet, the four Southeast Asian countries, which have little clout in the face of China’s might, are reluctant to escalate tensions by internationalizing the dispute.
The statement that ASEAN issued after the meeting on Monday (25/07) mentioned that the group is concerned about recent developments in the South China Sea region. Instead, China proposes to overcome rising tensions in the South China Sea region and to maintain peace and stability through an ASEAN-China dialogue.
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“We are going to hear about (Duterte’s) priorities, we’re going to get to know him”, a USA official said ahead of the meeting.
