Days of heated diplomacy at Southeast Asian talks ended in failure
Friday as deep splits over China prevented the Asean grouping from issuing its
customary joint statement for the first time.
Foreign ministers from the
10-member bloc have been wrangling since Monday to hammer out a diplomatic
communique, which has held up progress on a separate code of conduct aimed at
soothing tension in the flashpoint South China Sea.
China claims sovereignty over
nearly all of the resource-rich sea, which is home to vital shipping lanes, but
Asean members the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have competing
claims in the area.
The long-stalled code of conduct,
strongly supported by the United States, is seen as a way of reducing the
chances of a spat over fishing, shipping rights or oil and gas exploration
tipping into an armed conflict.
The Philippines lambasted the
failure at the end of the talks on Friday, saying "it deplores the
non-issuance of a joint communique... which was unprecedented in Asean's
45-year existence".
It had insisted Asean refer to an
armed stand-off with China last month over a rocky outcrop known as the
Scarborough Shoal, but Cambodia -- a Beijing ally and chair of the meeting --
resisted.
Taking "strong
exception" to Cambodia, the Philippine statement said divisions undercut
Asean's goal of tackling disputes as a bloc "and not in a bilateral
fashion -- the approach which its northern neighbour (China) has been insisting
on".
The Philippines and the United
States called this week for a unified Asean that could use its collective clout
to negotiate with China, while Beijing prefers to deal with its smaller
neighbours individually.
Diplomatic sources, speaking
anonymously to AFP, referred to angry exchanges during behind-the-scenes talks,
with an emergency meeting called for early Friday morning also failing to break
the deadlock.
"I think it would be fair to
say that tempers in some of the private meetings have run hot. There have been
some very tense back and forths," one US official said.
China is a key bankroller of the
much-criticised host Cambodia and some diplomats said Beijing had twisted arms
in Phnom Penh to prevent any reference to the South China Sea disputes in the communique.
Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor
Namhong expressed regret at the discord within Asean, but said he could
"not accept that the joint communique has become the hostage of the
bilateral issue (between the Philippines and China)".
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty
Natalegawa, who played a key role trying to broker a compromise, expressed
"deep, profound disappointment" at the lack of consensus within the
bloc.
"There is still a common
view that we must, if anything, reinforce our efforts to work on the COC (code
of conduct), to begin our talks with the Chinese on the COC," he added.
Foreign ministers said Sunday
they had agreed "key elements" of a draft code to be presented to
China, but these were not released to the media.
China was also cool on the idea
of starting negotiations, almost 10 years since the idea of creating a code was
first agreed, saying it would only negotiate "when conditions are
ripe".
Analysts said the friction could
"contaminate" future negotiations between Asean and China.
"Cambodia is showing itself
as China's stalking horse. This will make negotiating a final code of conduct
with China more difficult," said Southeast Asia expert Carl Thayer.
"I find it difficult to
believe that Asean foreign ministers cannot come up with some formulation that
satisfies all parties."
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