The Philippines yesterday deplored the non-issuance of a joint statement
at the end of the 45th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Foreign
Ministers’ Meeting held in Cambodia.
Foreign Secretary Albert del
Rosario said the failure to issue a joint statement was unprecedented in
Asean’s 45-year history.
A joint communiqué would have
included Asean’s stand on the territorial disputes of some members of the bloc
with China in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).
Del Rosario said the Philippines
took strong exception to the statement made by Cambodia, host of the meeting,
that this would be “the first time that Asean is not able to issue the joint
communiqué due to bilateral conflict between some Asean member states and a
neighbouring country.”
He said he had discussed the
situation at Panatag Shoal (Scarborough Shoal) in several meetings in Phnom
Penh starting Monday.
“There was a considerable amount
of discussions on Scarborough Shoal in all of the forums that were held there,”
Del Rosario told reporters. “I think we were successful in being able to bring
to the [forums] the challenges that the Philippines faces in that area.”
Asked for comment on China’s
allegation that the Philippines was causing trouble, Del Rosario said: “I think
even when we were silent, we were being accused of escalating; when we were
responding, we were accused of being the bully. Those are my humble
observations.”
Cambodia’s opposition
Explaining the controversy about
the Asean joint statement, Del Rosario said: “We simply wanted the fact that we
discussed the issue and it should be reflected in the joint communiqué, no
more, no less. It would have just been a simple sentence or paragraph in the
communiqué. We just want a recognition that the Scarborough Shoal was in fact
discussed.”
Del Rosario said several Asean
states and the Asean secretariat supported the Philippine position that the
Scarborough Shoal discussion should be reflected on the joint statement.
“However, the chair [Cambodia]
has consistently opposed any mention of the Scarborough Shoal at all in the
joint communiqué and today announced that a joint communiqué ‘cannot be
issued.’”
Del Rosario declined to name the
countries that supported the Philippines’ position, saying “I may be putting in
jeopardy those countries that I do not name, so I would prefer not to do that.”
“The first position the chair
took was that he doesn’t want to mention bilateral issues,” Del Rosario said.
“But if you look at many of the issues that we had, all of them have a
bilateral aspect to it.”
He said it was not true that the
Asean did include bilateral matters in joint statements. “The most recent
example of this was the problem between Cambodia and Thailand. In every
meeting, that was brought up as a matter of discussion with no reservations,”
Del Rosario said.
International issue
The Philippines, Del Rosario
said, maintains that since the competing claims in the West Philippine Sea are
not mere bilateral conflicts with a northern neighbour but multilateral, these
should be resolved multilaterally.
“In the case of Bajo de Masinloc
(Scarborough Shoal),” Del Rosario said, “the situation there threatens the
peace, stability, freedom of navigation and the unimpeded commerce in the South
China Sea (West Philippine Sea). It’s not only a bilateral and a regional issue
but an international one as well.”
Asked if Cambodia was pressured
by China, Del Rosario said: “I don’t want to speak for the chair. That question
should be answered directly by him. But at one point, he indicated that he had
political reasons.”
Multilateral solution
Del Rosario said the Asean
consensus reached during the senior officials meeting in June on the elements
of a code of conduct in the West Philippine Sea clearly underscored the pursuit
of a multilateral resolution of the disputes, not a bilateral resolution that
China preferred.
“Further, the Asean foreign
ministers have already agreed to initiate discussions between Asean and China
on the development of the code of conduct,” he added.
Del Rosario said the problem that
arose during the Phnom Penh meeting should not be seen as a beginning of a tear
in Asean.
“I think it just presents a
bigger challenge for us to continue to build on what we stand for—leadership,
centrality, solidarity,” he said. “I think we have now realised that we need to
work, all of us need to work together in building this community we’re
targeting for 2015,” Del Rosario said.
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