FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Perfecto R. Yasay Jr. rallied the foreign ministers at the 49th Asean Ministerial Meeting in Vientiane, Laos, to support a rules-based international order.
“The decision [of the Permanent Court of Arbitration or PCA] has provided a solid legal foundation on which a rules-based approach for resolving disputes in the South China Sea can be built,” he told his peers in the region. He added that the ruling has upheld international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).
Yasay pointed out that the decision has established jurisprudence on maritime disputes. “The ruling can move the dispute-settlement process forward” he said. “The Philippines strongly affirms its respect for this milestone decision as an important contribution to ongoing efforts in addressing disputes in the South China Sea.”
Foreign ministers from the 10-member Asean met for the first time since the United Nations-backed PCA handed an emphatic legal victory to the Philippines in the dispute this month.
Yasay made his appeal after the 10-member bloc ended their annual meeting in Vientiane on Sunday without resolving their disagreement over the South China Sea issue.
“We are focusing on the joint communiqué. We are still working on it,” Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi was quoted as telling the media, in reference to the joint statement traditionally released at the end of each Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.
The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei Darussalam have overlapping claims in the South China Sea, through which $5.3 trillion worth of trade passes through yearly.
In a historic ruling, China’s encompassing claim to almost 80 percent of the South China Sea was declared illegal by the UN court in a decision promulgated on July 12.
The Philippines and Vietnam both wanted the communiqué issued by Asean foreign ministers after their meeting to refer to the ruling and the need to respect international law. Their foreign ministers both discussed the ruling with Asean counterparts in the Laotian capital.
But before the meeting, China’s closest Asean ally Cambodia opposed the proposed wording, throwing the group into disarray. Phnom Penh supports Beijing’s opposition to any Asean stand on the South China Sea, and its preference for dealing with the disputed claims on a bilateral basis, news report from Laos said.
Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhon declined to comment on his country’s position on Sunday.
Even after a late-night meeting of foreign ministers called to thresh out the issue late on Saturday, the region’s top diplomats were unable to find a compromise.
The group has given itself until Tuesday to come to issue a statement, one Asean diplomat said.
Yasay said an Asean statement supporting the legal and diplomatic processes being pursued by the Philippines toward the peaceful resolution of the dispute, without taking sides, would not only reflect Asean acknowledgment and respect for a rules-based order, but also will reaffirm Asean’s “centrality and solidarity in the regional security architecture that would enhance Asean’s voice and growing influence in the international community.”
He cited that the ruling is “final and binding to all parties concerned, a clearly established fact” has “significant implications for the entire region, not just the coastal states bordering the South China Sea.”
“It is the Philippines’s view,” he said, “that, rather than creating a new regional security mechanism, we should, instead, strengthen the existing Asean-led mechanisms so they can be more effective in addressing the various traditional and nontraditional security challenges before us.”
Over the next two days, Southeast Asian nations will meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and US Secretary of State John F. Kerry. Kerry and Wang are also expected to meet and discuss the maritime issues.
Wang, who started bilateral meetings with Asean members on Sunday, said he thought the media focus on the South China Sea issue was “very strange.”
It was “not a China-Asean issue,” he said, adding that disputes should be resolved among the parties involved.
Japanese Foreign Minister Fumiko Kishida will also be in Laos for the Asean regional forum meeting. 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.
China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lu Kang, in a statement posted on the ministry’s web site, said the sea is not Japan’s concern.
“We urge Japan not to hype up and meddle in the South China Sea issue,” he said. “Japan is not a concerned party in the South China Sea, and because of its disgraceful history is in no place to make irresponsible comments about China.”
The United States, a key ally of the Philippines and cultivating closer relations with Vietnam, has called on China to respect the court’s ruling.
It has criticized China’s building of artificial islands and facilities in the sea, and has sailed warships close to the disputed territory to assert freedom of navigation rights.
But Kerry will urge Asean nations to explore diplomatic ways to ease tension over Asia’s biggest potential military flashpoint, a senior US official said ahead of his trip.