U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry greets Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay as he arrives at a meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN foreign ministers in Vientiane, Laos July 25, 2016.
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Although it is a signatory to the 1982 United Nations convention, China has dismissed the ruling as “a piece of waste-paper” and insisted that disputes in the resource-rich body of water must be addressed by claimants through bilateral negotiations.
“Many ministers stressed that in this context, Asean should promote solidarity, unity and a central role”, the statement added. China’s claims overlap with those of the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei.
US, China hold NSA-level talks after SCS verdict: THE US on Monday called for “candour and openness” ahead of NSA-level talks with China here, the first such high-level political dialogue since an worldwide tribunal rejected Beijing’s expansive claims over the strategic South China Sea.
Not only are the disputed waters a key sea lane for Japan, but giving Beijing a free pass for its aggressiveness there could encourage similar moves in parts of the East China Sea that Japan contests.
The Philippines has agreed to drop the mention of a United Nations-backed court’s decision on a legal challenge with China over South China Sea in an Association of Southeast Asian Nations communique after Cambodia expressed objections to the judgment, Reuters reported Monday.
ASEAN is divided on whether to rebuke China for its territorial ambitions, which infringes on areas claimed by four AESAN member nations.
Last month, before the ruling, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said his party “does not support, and more so is against, any declaration by ASEAN to support the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in relation to the South China Sea dispute”.
“We have been here before and I hope they can solve it”, said one official from the ASEAN Secretariat in Indonesia.
Competing claims with China in the vital waterway are among the most contentious issues for Asean, with its 10 members pulled between their desire to assert their sovereignty while finding common ground and fostering political and commercial ties with Beijing. It is expected that the two sides discussed China’s territorial expansion in the South China Sea.
Over the weekend, there were fears of a repeat when Asean foreign ministers struggled to find common ground after Phnom Penh stuck to its demand the group make no mention in a statement to an global court ruling against Beijing’s claim in the South China Sea, said diplomats.
Meanwhile, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi pointed out that China greatly approves of Cambodia and other ASEAN countries taking charge of impartiality and safeguarding fairness.
Diplomats at the talks have said that Cambodia, and to a certain extent Laos, had been opposed to a strong statement on the South China Sea disputes. For the United States and its Asian allies, it marks a test of how much they can push back against China’s growing military and regional ambitions.
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The countries also reaffirmed commitment to implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and working substantively toward the early adoption of a Code of Conduct (COC). Japan can not make claims on the Spratly islands, but there exist similar disputes in the East China Sea. Singh is representing India because foreign minister Sushma Swaraj, who suffered from a bout of pneumonia recently, has been advised to try to avoid travel. “That’s why we urge other countries in the region to lower the temperature”, he told a news conference after 90 minutes of talks with the ASEAN ministers.
