Southeast Asian foreign ministers have failed to hammer out a joint
statement summarizing key regional meetings this week. Members of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations stumbled over how to deal with a
simmering dispute in the South China Sea.
The unprecedented impasse has
left some officials pointing a finger at chair Cambodia, and it raises
questions on the cohesiveness of the 10-member bloc.
ASEAN’s failure to compile a
basic statement has brought this week’s usually secretive back-room discussions
to the forefront. As the meetings concluded on Friday, the Philippines blamed
the impasse on Cambodia, which holds this year’s chair of the regional bloc.
The Philippines, one of four
ASEAN claimants to the South China Sea, wanted the joint communique to include
mention of discussions regarding the Scarborough Shoal, a set of disputed
islands in the body of water.
ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia,
the Philippines and Vietnam all claim overlapping parts of the South China Sea,
along with Taiwan and China. But it is China’s influence on the issue that has
proven the most divisive to ASEAN members.
In a news conference following
the meetings Friday, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong defended the
chair’s decision. Speaking through a translator, he said ASEAN should not be
wading into territorial disputes - a position similar to Chinese views of the
issue.
“Cambodia has taken a position of
principle," he explained. "We are not a tribunal to decide the
dispute. Here at the meeting of the ASEAN foreign ministers, we are not a
tribunal to adjudicate who is right, who is wrong.”
Namhong instead suggested that
ASEAN members with claims to the sea were attempting to hijack the process.
The failure to come to terms on a
joint communique is unprecedented in the history of ASEAN ministerial meetings,
says Carlyle Thayer, a specialist on ASEAN affairs at the University of New
South Wales.
Thayer also says the failure to
draft even a basic statement this week raises more fundamental questions for
ASEAN.
“ASEAN has stood for being the
guardian of South East Asia’s regional autonomy. Trying to provide the
insulation against the intrusion of great powers," Thayer said. "What
this indicates is that China has managed to break that insulation and influence
one particular country. That’s going to affect any issues that begin to touch
on China.”
Thayer says the issue may have
exposed a rift among the ASEAN countries that have territorial disputes with
China, and those that rely on China for trade. Cambodia has received hundreds
of millions of dollars in soft loans and investment from China.
Still, ASEAN ministers downplayed
the issue while acknowledging their concern Friday. Indonesian Foreign Minister
Marty Natalegawa’s comments Friday were more tempered after he called the
failure to reach a joint statement “irresponsible”, just a day earlier. He told
reporters that the meetings had made him more inspired to push forward on an
elusive ASEAN Code of Conduct, or COC, on the South China Sea dispute.
“If anything out of this meeting
I am even more determined to push for the COC, so all these side happenings
becomes more contextual," Natalegawa said. "Instead of the incidents,
the tail wagging the dog, we should have a sense of purpose. We should move
forward rather than being sidetracked by incidents.”
ASEAN Secretary-General Surin
Pitsuwan stressed the need for members to move quickly on repairing what damage
has been done.
“I can’t lay the blame on anyone,
declared Pitsuwan. "I think it’s a collective responsibility for us to try
to find the solution to this. I consider it a major hiccup. And we will have to
recoup from this hiccup very quick and very fast.”
Cambodia remains in the chair for
the next ASEAN leaders’ summit, scheduled for November.
Irwin Loy | Phnom Penh
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