US President Barack Obama warned Thursday an global tribunal’s ruling that China’s sweeping claims to the South China Sea had no legal basis was “binding”, after Beijing vowed to ignore the verdict.
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Southeast Asian leaders are set to avoid references to a recent arbitration ruling that undermined China’s claims to the South China Sea, after omitting it from a joint statement at a summit this week over which Beijing’s influence looms large. Instead, Cambodia opposed including an explicit mention of the United Nations tribunal’s ruling, the official said.
USA officials have been waiting to see what China would do around Scarborough Shoal after the summit meeting, assuming that the Chinese wanted a seamless conference.
Lee added that a framework for a code of conduct in the South China Sea between ASEAN and China should be initiated this year, he said.
The competing territorial claims have always been a major source of tension in the region, with China using deadly force twice to seize control of islands from Vietnam.
Soon after the ruling in The Hague, the Philippines lobbied strongly at an Asean foreign ministers’ meeting for the verdict to be included in the text of the communique, only for Cambodia, a China ally, to oppose it.
Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte sits for the retreat session in the ongoing 28th and 29th ASEAN Summits at the National Convention Center, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016 in Vientiane, Laos.
“It seems that every country played down the level of conflict, therefore the tone of the meeting was quite friendly and emphasised peace and security within the region”, said Weerachon Sukhondhapatipak, a Thai government spokesman.
This combination of September 3, 2016 photos provided by the Philippine Government shows what it says are surveillance pictures of Chinese coast guard ships and barges at the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea.
A UN-backed tribunal ruled in July that China’s claims to the sea had no legal basis.
The tribunal said China had violated global law by interfering with fishing, endangering ships of the Philippines and failing to protect the marine environment at the shoal, the tribunal said.
Duterte reportedly wailed, “Why is China treating us this way?” when he was shown the latest surveillance photos of the Scarborough Shoal.
“What I can tell you is that the situation in waters near Huangyan Island remains unchanged and China hasn’t made any new moves”, Hua said in Beijing, using the shoal’s Chinese name. Laos and Brunei also are in China’s corner against their seven Asean partners on the issue. “We should be highly alert against the mischief-making intentions of people who spread such groundless information in such situations”.
However, Duterte’s defence minister said ahead of the summit that a Philippines air force plane had flown over the shoal and spotted more boats than usual in a flotilla China has maintained since seizing the shoal after a tense standoff in 2012.
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The Philippines has expressed concern about Beijing’s massive island-building over reefs, some of them claimed by Manila, in the South China Sea.
