Three companies dealing in shipping, tourism and construction will contribute to running as many as eight cruise liners to service a region through which an estimated $5 trillion in global trade passes each year.
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The South China Sea is dotted with reefs and rocky outcroppings that several governments claim, including China and the Philippines.
The Philippines and Vietnam both wanted the ruling, which denied China’s sweeping claims in the strategic seaway that channels more than $5 trillion in global trade each year, and a call to respect worldwide maritime law to feature in the communique.
China publicly thanked Cambodia for supporting its stance on maritime disputes, a position which threw the regional bloc’s weekend meeting in the Laos capital of Vientiane into disarray.
ASEAN has wanted to chastise China in its joint communique but has been unable to because of Cambodia, a close China ally.
Like all other ASEAN meetings, the foreign ministers’ conclave also traditionally ends with a joint communique.
The Chinese minister suggested it’s never too late to mend and that it’s time now to make a fresh start, set things right and bring the issue back on track.
Some members also made remarks about the situation in the South China Sea.
“India, as a state party to the UNCLOS, urges all parties to show utmost respect for the UNCLOS, which is the foundation of the worldwide legal order of the seas and oceans”, Singh said in his closing statement at the meeting with the Asean ministers. “It is the same story again, a repeat of the meeting in 2012”.
Kerry arrived in Laos on Monday and is expected to hold talks with Wang later in the day.
Southeast Asian nation foreign ministers finally released a joint communique Monday that included South China Sea concerns, but it failed to mention a recent ruling by an arbitration court that rejected Chinese claims to the maritime area.
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”.
“The China-Japan relations are still vulnerable and unsatisfactory”, Mr Wang told Fumio Kishida, Japan’s minister for foreign affairs. It is unclear if he will meet Wang, but China reacted angrily to Kishida saying he would discuss the sea issue if they do meet.
The statement is a victory for China, which has used every diplomatic muscle in its power to prevent criticism of its actions.
They likewise confirmed their respect for, and commitment to, the freedom of navigation in and over flight above the South China Sea. Japan can not make claims on the Spratly islands, but there exist similar disputes in the East China Sea. According to state news agency Xinhua, China said the said the ruling is “null and void with no binding force”.
U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice is in Beijing for talks with Chinese officials in the highest-level visit by a White House official since an worldwide tribunal issued a ruling that invalidated China’s expansive claims to the South China Sea, a move that was set to fuel tensions.
Earlier speaking to Southeast Asian ministers Kerry said the U.S. would continue to push “a rules-based worldwide system that protects the rights of all nations whether big or small”.
Chinese state media called for “damage control” at the meetings.
In September, Barack Obama is scheduled to become the first U.S. president to visit Laos, attending an annual summit hosted by the country that holds the ASEAN chairmanship.
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Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is also in Laos, making her debut at ASEAN meetings as the foreign minister for Myanmar.
