US President Barack Obama on Thursday emphasised the “binding” nature of the July ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration over Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea after China rejected the verdict as null and void.
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Officials said talks between South-east Asian leaders and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the summit went smoothly, but there was no reference to the tribunal’s ruling.
Obama said he realizes the ruling raised tensions but he says the US wants these disputes to be resolved peacefully and will keep working to help make that happen.
ASEAN leaders as well as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye attended the meeting.
Apart from China, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have claims in the South China Sea which allows more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually. The six-page, 28-point declaration devoted one paragraph to the South China Sea.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying criticized Obama’s remarks as betraying the U.S.’s supposedly neutral stance on the arbitration, and said that if regional nations were “truly concerned about peace and stability in the South China Sea, [they would] support China” in the dispute, state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
China rejected the verdict, questioning the legality of the tribunal even as the United States said it is a valid judgement to be implemented by all parties concerned.
Wednesday by China’s foreign ministry about the meeting, Li was paraphrased as saying China was willing to work with Asean countries in “dispelling interference … and properly handling the South China Sea issue”. “No new action has been taken by China”.
Following a week of summits in the region, Mr Turnbull told reporters progress was slow but there was a sense of cautious optimism that there could be at least agreement on a code of conduct for the South China Sea. China’s claims to the waters, which host a $5 trillion stake in worldwide shipping trade, have been disputed by its neighbours.
Duterte’s government released surveillance photos of the Chinese ships and barges along with a diagram showing the vessels’ exact locations at the Scarborough Shoal, which the Chinese coast guard seized after a tense standoff with Philippine vessels in 2012.
“We remain seriously concerned over recent and ongoing developments and took note of the concerns expressed by some leaders on the land reclamations”, said a joint statement at the end of their summit on Wednesday.
Obama said on Thursday the ruling had helped clarify maritime rights.
Japan’s dispute with China is over uninhabited islands controlled by Tokyo. Cambodia, for example, remains firmly in China’s camp, as is Laos to a large extent, preventing any robust statement from the consensus-bound ASEAN group.
President Obama’s visit was his eighth to an ASEAN summit, reflecting the region’s growing importance.
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The ten-member [ASEAN], which includes other claimants such as the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei, instead confined their remarks to a relatively anodyne statement saying that ASEAN nations affirmed their respect for worldwide law.
