“This agreement is one proof that during hard times, ASEAN could unite and step forward to maintain its common house and interest”, she said on Tuesday. “The others are not concerned with that dispute”, Yasay told reporters.
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The Philippines, which says it owns areas claimed by China, took the case to a Hague-based tribunal for arbitration.
Given that the 10-member ASEAN group only issues joint statements on matters that all members agree upon, the lack of a joint statement on the South China Sea ruling is a clear sign that the group is divided on the matter.
“On the basis of worldwide law, the issue involving the South China Sea should be peacefully resolved”, Kishida said.
Ahead of the Asean Foreign Minister’s Meeting, during which many believed a joint-Asean statement on the South China Sea would be developed, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced that Cambodia would receive nearly $600 million in aid from China within a three-year timeframe to be used for the “development” of the Kingdom’s electoral process, health sector and clean water infrastructure.
For his part, the US secretary of state affirmed the neutral USA stance on various overlapping territorial disputes on the South China Sea.
Kerry, the highest ranking U.S. official to meet with Mr. Duterte since his election in May, paid a courtesy call in Malacañang hours after expressing support for Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay’s moves to start bilateral talks with China.
Kerry also urged the claimant countries to “exercise restraint and to work to reduce tension” in the South China Sea.
Japan, Australia and the U.S. on Tuesday urged China to recognise the ruling by The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in favour of the Philippines over its South China Sea dispute with Beijing.
Laos, a one-party communist state with little experience hosting worldwide gatherings and one of ASEAN’s poorest members, is this year’s chairman of the grouping.
Mr. Sounry’s comments were backed up by a Reuters report filed from the meeting in Laos.
The joint communique issued at the 49th Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Vientiane on Sunday reaffirmed the countries’ commitment to maintaining peace and respecting legal and diplomatic processes based on the principles of global law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
In a case brought by the Philippines, a United Nations tribunal ruled against China, deeming its territorial claims “invalid”.
The award given by the Arbitral Tribuna is beyond the scope of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and has gravely violated the global law and the general practice of worldwide arbitration, and it does not stand for the global law, he said.
Yasay on Wednesday, July 27, confirmed that he “vigorously” pushed to include the Hague ruling in the ASEAN joint communiqué.
The ruling was rejected as “invalid” by China, which prior to the verdict had already declared that it does not consider the tribunal to have jurisdiction in the dispute.
Yasay said the Philippines did not want to gloat over the win, or rock the boat with ASEAN. The official said Kerry would also raise USA concerns over “an unhappy history” in the Philippines of extra-judicial killings and violence against journalists.
ASEAN Secretary General Le Luong Minh said that the communique was not a victory for China, but for ASEAN’s values and principle of finding consensus.
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“The Filipino foreign minister himself chose to remove (it) and not to mention the ruling”, Chum Sounry said.
