Phnom Penh — The 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have
agreed on a code of conduct to prevent armed clashes over the South China Sea
but have yet to get Beijing to agree to it, a Cambodian official said Monday.
The agreement was reached at a
meeting of the Asean foreign ministers in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh,
without the participation of China, which has voiced opposition to discussing
the issue on the regional level and likewise frowned on Manila’s intent to
bring the issue before the United Convention on the Law of the Seas or UNCLOS.
China has said it is in favor of
holding bilateral talks with concerned nations instead.
The contending maritime claims
are at the center of the Asean talks in large part because the tensions over
the sea have escalated in recent months. Chinese and Philippine ships have been
locked in a standoff over the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal since April, while
Vietnam last month protested Chinese oil exploration offers in waters that both
countries claim.
Sources at the conference said
the Asean supported Manila’s call for the disputes to be settled in accordance
with the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, a treaty that establishes limits
to how much of neighboring seas a nation may claim as its territory or
exclusive economic zone.
While China is a signatory to
that treaty, it opposes its application to the current dispute because this
would weaken its claims over the South China Sea.
The official mouthpieces of the
Chinese government warned the Asean to play no more than a mediating role in
the territorial disputes among China and the Philippines and Vietnam.
“Territorial disputes in the
South China Sea are originally bilateral conflicts between China and countries
including Vietnam and the Philippines,” the English language Global Times said
in its editorial.
“The bilateral approach advocated
by China hasn’t prevailed yet, but the multilateral approach will not boost the
legitimacy of the claims of Vietnam and the Philippines.”
The newspaper also issued a
pointed warning to Manila and Hanoi: “Public opinion in China is already on the
brink of boiling over. Further provocation from Vietnam and the Philippines
would mean direct confrontation with China’s angry public.”
The official People’s Daily, on
the other hand, took the Philippines to task for building up its military
capabilities and for trying to involve the United States in its dispute with
China.
Amid the tensions over the
Panatag Shoal, the Chinese Navy started its live ammunition drill in the East
China Sea on Tuesday.
The state-run Chinese newspaper
China Daily said the annual military exercises were not a reaction to the
ongoing drills between the Philippines and the United States in the Mindanao
Sea, which started on July 2.
In his opening speech at the
Asean meeting, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen urged Southeast Asian countries
to do more to promote mutual economic growth and security and called for a code
of conduct in the South China Sea to be implemented.
Cambodian Secretary of State Kao
Kim Hourn said at a news conference late Monday that the declaration was
intended to cover China in addition to the Asean states. The code would spell
out the rules governing maritime rights and navigation in the South China Sea.
He said the Asean had “agreed on
the key elements among Asean only, and from now on we have to start discussing
this with China.” Details of the code of conduct were not given.
The Asean will have a ministerial
level meeting with China on Wednesday morning, along with other high-level
meetings later this week.
China claims virtually the entire
South China Sea and has created an entirely new city to administer it, sparking
protests from rival claimants. The sea is crossed by some of the world’s
busiest sea lanes, has rich fishing grounds and is believed to have vast energy
reserves.
In Hanoi, visiting US Secretary
of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she supported Vietnam’s work to help
resolve the issues in the disputed South China Sea, but believed the communist
country needed to do more to protect human rights.
Following a meeting with
Vietnamese Foreign Minister Phan Binh Minh on Tuesday, Clinton said she
remained particularly concerned about the lack of online freedom, along with
the jailing of journalists, bloggers, lawyers and dissidents for peaceful expression.
Vietnam maintains only lawbreakers are imprisoned.
Clinton also said she hoped
progress would be made this week at a regional meeting in Cambodia toward
establishing a code of conduct to help resolve the disputes in the South China
Sea peacefully.
Hun Sen in his opening speech
also said that the Asean faced challenges including instability elsewhere in
the world, natural disasters and high food and energy costs. He said the
economic gap among the Asean’s 10 members had narrowed but needed to be reduced
further to ensure competitiveness and achieve real regional integration.
Sara Susanne D. Fabunan
AP
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