After the last Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers' Meeting last July in
Cambodia failed to produce a joint communique over the South China Sea issue,
the Philippines will have another swing at the same issue at the 21st Summit of
the regional bloc that kicks off on Sunday, November 18, in Phnom Penh.
President Benigno Aquino III is
expected to raise the concerns of four ASEAN member countries (the Philippines,
Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam) regarding China's claim over 90% of the maritime
area.
Aquino wants to build a consensus
within the regional bloc to tackle the issue of China's alleged encroachment in
the region's most disputed area, with Chinese ships venturing well into the 200
nautical mile boundaries established by the United Nations Convention on the
Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), signed by all concerned parties including China and
Taiwan.
Will Manila's efforts be more
successful this time, or will Beijing manage to exert enough pressure over its
strongest regional ally for Cambodia to block a joint statement, as it did in
July?
Push for COC
Before the president is set to
present the case of the Philippines at the plenary, Foreign Affairs Secretary
Albert del Rosario on Saturday, November 17, made it clear that maritime
security is still a serious concern for ASEAN.
“Any disruption of the sea lanes
of communication and traditional maritime trading routes would affect freedom
and safety of navigation and impede lawful commerce in our oceans and seas,
making regional maritime collaboration imperative,” Del Rosario said at the 2nd
Foreign Ministers' Meeting hosted this year by Cambodia.
Del Rosario said the adoption of
the ASEAN's 6-point principles on the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea)
underscores ASEAN's capacity to resolve disputes peacefully.
Aquino plans to urge member
countries to set aside their differences and draft the code of conduct (COC), a
binding mechanism to implement the non-binding Declaration on the Conduct of
Parties in the South China Sea, signed in 2002 and which so far has been unable
to settle the issue.
ASEAN Secretary-General Dr. Surin
Pitsuwan agreed and said on Saturday that the new COC must be “sanctified, to
be binding, to be ratified at the end of the process, whenever that is.”
United ASEAN
Before leaving for Cambodia, the
Philippine president urged ASEAN member countries to present a united front
against China over the South China Sea when both sides meet at the East Asia
Summit, one of the regional bloc's side meetings.
ASEAN must speak with one voice,
Aquino said.
But despite this call for unity,
the fact is that the organization has so far failed to address the matter with
consensus, with non-claimant countries such as Cambodia preferring to not rock
the boat with China instead of defending the rights of fellow ASEAN member
countries.
Indonesia has been sending out
feelers to try to mediate between the two positions, but those efforts have
come up with scant results and the divide remains.
Thailand, another powerful voice
within ASEAN, is opting to not take sides as the kingdom is embroiled in its
own territorial dispute with Cambodia over a border temple, while Singapore
will be careful to not anger China after it had to clarify its position
following a confusing statement of support for the Philippines that was later
retracted.
China under new leadership
The ASEAN Summit will also be the
first high-level international meeting involving China since the Communist
Party Congress that formally initiated the handover of power from President Hu
Jintao to Vice President Xi Jinping.
Neither Hu nor Xi are in Cambodia
but China's leadership change is also expected to be discussed in Phnom Penh,
even if Xi has not hinted at any major policy shifts regarding the South China
Sea for when he takes over as President in a few months.
On top of its row with ASEAN,
China has similar maritime and territorial disputes with Japan and South Korea
over islands in the East China Sea, and the tensions now are so high that the
three countries have cancelled a joint meeting they had been holding since
1999.
The leadership reshuffle is
widely expected to have virtually no effect over China's current foreign policy
of encroaching their settlements in the South China Sea, unless ASEAN is able
to convince Beijing to pursue a multilateral approach to solving the row, an
initiative that is precisely what China does not want.
So what's in store for the
Philippines? Most likely, that the tug of war will continue and the dispute
will drag for the next few months.
Rappler.com
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