Asean nations including the Philippines and Vietnam have overlapping claims in waters where China has reclaimed thousands of acres of land and increased its military presence.
Advertisement
Instead, it fell upon ASEAN’s allies to rush to their support.
In its statement, the AESAN ministers said that they “remain seriously concerned over recent and ongoing developments”.
China has rejected the tribunal’s ruling, saying it does not have the authority to hear the case brought by the Philippines. But he is scheduled to give a news conference shortly.
“This year marks the 25th anniversary of the China-ASEAN relations. deep cooperation in various areas”. A lot of them want to, but Cambodia, a key Beijing ally, and Laos do not want to be critical of China.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi attends the 6th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Vientiane, capital of Laos, July 26, 2016.
Many news reports on the statement issued by the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Vientiane, Laos characterized it as a successful attempt by China, through its close ally Cambodia, to block any mention of the verdict of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which said China’s claims over nearly the whole South China Sea had no legal basis.
“So we still have a task ahead of us. which is to try to work going forward to make sure that we are resolving the issues through diplomacy and the rule of law”, he said.
The massive media contingent gathered here was allowed to go into the meeting room before for photographs and video opportunity that took almost 30 minutes before the meeting could start.
Beijing’s officials see an American plot behind the arbitration case, considering that as just another sign of what China perceives as a relentless US campaign to contain its rise to prominence.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay on Wednesday denied that China “won” when the Philippines reportedly dropped a request to mention, in an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) statement, the historic arbitral tribunal ruling on the disputed South China Sea.
“You will read it”, he said.
“I am very happy with the joint communiqué statement…”
A tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on July 12 denied the legal basis for Beijing’s claim to almost all of the sea, parts of which are also claimed by neighbouring nations.
Competing claims with China in the vital shipping lane and resource-rich sea are among the most contentious issues for the 10 members of ASEAN, who are pulled between their desire to assert their sovereignty while fostering ties with an increasingly assertive Beijing. “That’s why we urge other counties in the region to lower the temperature”, he told a news conference after 90 minutes of talks with the ASEAN ministers. The Malaysian delegation will be led by Othman, he says.
Advertisement
Foreign ministers of Southeast Asian countries began arriving at a convention center for an unscheduled last-ditch attempt to hammer a consensus on how to deal with China’s territorial expansion in the South China Sea.
