Cambodia is also pushing to strike out any reference to the militarization of the South China Sea, watering down the language in statements issued previously by Asean this year.
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Beijing-based naval expert Li Jie told the South China Morning Post that Beijing’s move might be in response to the Pentagon’s withdrawal of a warship from the South China Sea on July 5.
China is adamantly opposed to an Asean stand on the South China Sea, preferring to deal with the disputed claims on a bilateral basis. But it was clear Cambodia’s intransigence had carried the day.
In welcoming remarks, Laotian Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith made no mention of the dispute.
Foreign ministers from the 10-member bloc for the 49th Asean Foreign Ministers Meeting were welcomed by Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, who called for “frank and constructive discussions” between member states and partners, “contributing to the maintenance and promotion of peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the world”, a news agency reported.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho reportedly took the same flight to make a trip to this Laotian capital of Vientiane on Sunday.
At the opening ceremony, Laos laid out the theme of its chairmanship: to help turn the vision of ASEAN as a dynamic community into a reality.
China’s disputes with four ASEAN countries – the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei – has become a major diplomatic and potential security problem for the region.
“I think ASEAN and China have a wider picture than the South China Sea, and we will be working for the issuance of the joint communique”, Aung Lynn, the director-general of Myanmar’s ASEAN Affairs Department, told reporters. China and Japan have had a rather frosty relationship over a range of matters – including historical and economic issues.
It was important to avoid militarisation of the region, and for freedom of navigation to be maintained, ASEAN said.
The communique referred instead to the need to find peaceful resolutions to disputes in the South China Sea in accordance with worldwide law, including the United Nations’ law of the sea, to which the court ruling referred.
The ongoing impasse in Vientiane has led to fears of a repeat of a 2012 summit in Cambodia where the bloc failed to issue a joint communique for the first time in its history because of disagreements over the South China Sea. “Laos is hiding behind its role ASEAN chairman and not saying anything but at the same time it is careful not to offend China”, the diplomat said.
The bloc’s paralysis on how to respond comes as China ratchets up its rhetoric and military maneuvers in the sea whilst hitting out at the United States which has backed rival claimants and argued for free passage through what it considers global waters. “Hun Sen, by undermining Asean in this way, is antagonizing-more or less permanently-Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam”.
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After Wang Yi’s three-nation tour, Lao President Bounnhang Vorachith attempted a conciliatory gesture towards the other members of Asean by immediately paying a friendly visit to Hanoi.
