S. China Sea ruling overshadows ASEAN summit
July 24, 2016
Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will meet in communist Laos on Sunday at a summit overshadowed by disagreements over maritime rights in the South China Sea.
The high-profile ASEAN summit is the first since the UN-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on July 12 ruled that China had no basis for its expansive claims to territorial waters around the Philippines.
Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have also claimed parts of the strategic sea. However, Beijing rejected the court's ruling. Since the court's decision, China has staged live-firing exercises in the area, and said it would launch regular aerial patrols over the sea.
Beijing has come under international scrutiny for building man-made islands that host what Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi earlier this year described as "limited and necessary self-defense facilities."
Since 1967, ASEAN member states have relied on the founding principle of making decisions by consensus.
However, the bloc's cardinal rule has posed a major issue for Southeast Asian nations attempting to shore up support for their territorial claims against China.
Final communique
A joint communique acknowledging the court's ruling would be one way for the bloc to issue a statement concerning maritime rights in the South China Sea.
Including a reference to the ruling in final communique "is a difficult issue that requires efforts of all parties," said Tran Viet Thai, deputy director of the Institute of Strategic Studies, a government think-tank in Vietnam.
"They cannot avoid it at such a major and international event. The issue is how Laos will play their host role and how other countries contribute to the success of the meetings," the director added.
However, Laos, a key ally of China, is likely to block any attempts at citing the ruling in the communique. The impasse has led to fears of a repeat of a 2012 summit, when the bloc failed to issue a final joint communique in Cambodia, another China ally, marking the first time in ASEAN's history.
ls/rc (AFP, AP)