From left, Vietnam Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and Othman Hashim, Secretary General of the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, prepare for a group photo as they shake hands for a group photo during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-U.S. Southeast Asia’s main grouping made a last-ditch attempt to reach a consensus on countering China’s territorial expansion in the South China Sea, but their deadlock appeared far from being resolved as minutes ticked by before a critical meeting with the Chinese foreign minister Monday.
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China is willing to support Laos as the host of the foreign ministers’ meeting to ensure the success of the meeting, Wang told Saleumxay.
Instead, the nations adopted a statement expressing concern about developments in the waters that made no mention of a landmark July 12 worldwide arbitration panel ruling in a dispute between the Philippines and China that said Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea were illegal.
A central principle of ASEAN is consensus.
A Vietnamese naval soldier stands quard at Thuyen Chai island in the Spratly archipelago January 17, 2013.
Kerry “urged ASEAN to reach consensus and issue a joint statement on the arbitral tribunal’s recent ruling on the South China Sea”, the State Department said in a statement.
China and Asean then released a separate joint statement on implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea. Cambodia blocked any mention to an global court ruling against Beijing in their statement.
The South China Sea arbitration has already caused damages to the stability of the ASEAN and the region, and most of the ASEAN members do not want the issue to fester any further, said the Lao diplomat.
Their foreign ministers both discussed the ruling with ASEAN counterparts in the Laotian capital.
He also accused countries outside the region of “keeping the temperature high” over the sea, a clear rebuke to the US. China has dismissed the ruling as bogus, saying the Hague-based tribunal has no authority to rule on what Beijing calls bilateral disputes.
The contested sea, through which some $5 trillion in shipping passes annually, has been a source of increasing tension between China and its Southeast Asian neighbours as well as the United States.
Wang warned again against “interference from outside countries” and efforts to “divide relations between China and Asean”, a veiled reference to the United States and Japan.
Meeting Xi, Rice said the US and China’s interdependence meant that China’s success was also in America’s interest, and said the two nations have demonstrated that they can work together on major global issues such as climate change.
The statement said China and Asean agreed to refrain from “action of inhabiting on the presently uninhabited islands, reefs, shoals, cays, and other features and to handle their differences in a constructive manner”.
Instead, the 10-nation group published a communiqué that stressed the need to find peaceful resolutions to disputes in the South China Sea through worldwide law.
Kerry arrived in Laos on Monday for the ASEAN regional forum and East Asia summits.
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Kerry was also expected to discuss maritime issues in a meeting with Wang on Monday.
