“The landmark arbitration ruling in July, which is binding, helped to clarify maritime rights in the region”, Mr Obama told South-east Asian leaders at a summit in Laos. Obama brought that up again.
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In a bilateral meeting before the East Asia Summit began, Mr Turnbull made the same points to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.
Obama, closing out his final presidential trip to Asia, said his meetings with foreign leaders during the trip had illustrated that governing is “serious business” requiring knowledge, preparation and thought-out policies that can actually be implemented.
Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China have agreed to step up measures to stop military tensions in the disputed waters of South China Sea through the Code of Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES) and a hotline that alerts parties on skirmishes including military incursions particularly of claimants.
The United States and Japan urged China on Thursday to resolve disputes in the South China Sea with the Philippines and other smaller neighbors in line with an arbitration ruling in July that invalidated Beijing’s claims to nearly the whole of the sea.
A joint statement after the Tuesday summit said it “took note of the concerns expressed by some leaders on the land reclamations and escalation of activities in the area, which have eroded trust and confidence, increased tensions and may undermine peace, security and stability in the region”.
According to the Philippine Department of National Defense (DND), this is one of the Chinese vessels in Scarborough Shoal, one of the disputed areas of South China Sea.
USA officials, however, said there were other critical elements in the ASEAN statement that China failed to block, and which they said amounted to a strong diplomatic rebuke of Beijing. As America is aware that the future of the world politics lies in the East because global geopolitics has moved towards East from its traditional Euro-Atlantic centre of power after two and a half century, it did conclude a significant military agreement with Australia in 2011, following its “Asia-Pivot” programme, having a covert agenda to contain China’s imperialist-militarist aggressions in the Asia-Pacific region with a view to provide an effective security cover in the region and also to re-establish that the USA is still a global power and maintains its dominance and hegemony all over the world, against a likely projected scenario of China replacing the USA hegemony by the end of mid-21st century. Cambodia did however block an explicit mention of the tribunal’s ruling, which the Philippines was willing to concede, the official said.
A tribunal in July issued an “award” on the South China Sea arbitration, which was unilaterally initiated by the former government of the Philippines.
Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei also claim parts of the South China Sea, a vital waterway for global trade, which is also believed to be rich in energy resources and fish stocks. The awkwardness continued days later when Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte called Obama a “son of a bitch” and warned Obama not to challenge him in their planned meeting in Laos. “We are confident that the relations between us will be improved with the joint efforts of the two countries”, he said.
Together they are attending the East Asia Summit in the Laotian capital.
Manila produced photos it said showed fresh construction activity at the flashpoint Scarborough Shoal, an accusation that was denied by Beijing and played down by Washington.
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The Philippines is concerned that China may plan to turn the shoal into another man-made island.
