China scored a diplomatic victory on Monday as Southeast Asian nations dropped a U.S.-backed proposal to mention a landmark worldwide court ruling against Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea in a joint statement.
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“India has noted the Award of the Arbitral Tribunal constituted under Annex VII of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea (UNCLOS) in the matter concerning the Philippines and China”.
“This is the right time for us to send out a very clear and strong message to North Korea that our alliance is stronger, deeper and broader than ever”, Seoul’s Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said after a sitdown with Kerry.
“They reiterated their agreement on the shared goal of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula”, Price said.
Rice also held “fruitful” talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, noting “with satisfaction the substantial progress in the development of bilateral relations through deepened cooperation in areas of overlapping interest and agreed on the value of forthright and constructive management of our differences”, according to the statement.
The statement said, without naming countries: “The ministers also opposed any coercive or unilateral actions that could alter the status quo and increase tensions in the East China Sea and will remain in close communication about the situation in the area”.
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.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay said Wednesday that resolution of dispute in the South China Sea is between China and his country only, a welcoming change in Manila’s policy.
When attending an APT foreign ministers’ meeting in the Lao capital, Wang said, “China has been an active participant and promoter for the East Asia cooperation”.
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.
In fact, the new Philippine government has expressed a number of times its intention to restart negotiations with China concerning the two sides’ dispute in the South China Sea as it fully understands the gravity and necessity of having a functional relationship with the world’s second-largest economy and the world’s most populous market.
China’s claims to the waters, where it has reclaimed thousands of acres of land and boosted its military presence, overlap those of Asean nations including the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, and Malaysia.
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“The ministers stressed that this is a crucial opportunity for the region to uphold the existing rules-based global order and to show respect for worldwide law”, they said.
