CALL TO ‘CHERISH PEACE’, PREVENT CLASHES
Southeast Asian countries should cherish lasting regional peace and help prevent the situation in the South China Sea from getting out of control, according to a senior Chinese diplomat.
“It is regrettable to see heightened tensions in the South China Sea over the past year,” Liu Zhenmin, China’s envoy for climate change, told the annual Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan yesterday.
Liu, who was responsible for South China Sea affairs as vice-minister for foreign affairs before taking a senior United Nations role in 2017, said Beijing and members of the Association of Southeast Nations should seek bilateral or regional solutions to their territorial disputes through negotiation. “People in East Asian countries should be aware of and cherish the three-decade-long regional peace since the end of the Cold War, and efforts should not be spared to prevent new conflicts from emerging in the South China Sea,” Liu said.
His comments follow a series of clashes between China and the Philippines around the disputed Second Thomas and Scarborough Shoals, which have led to an increased focus on the issue among the wider international community. He also warned: “The past year has witnessed closer military cooperation among the United States, Japan and the Philippines. Many are concerned that this would trigger another conflict in Southeast Asia.”
Liu also told the event: “Extraterritorial countries should support neighbouring countries of the South China Sea in their search for fair solutions through negotiation, instead of fanning the flames and creating risks. Countries should also avoid … [supporting] one side while suppressing the other.”
The resource-rich South China Sea, one of the world’s most important shipping lanes, is the subject of multiple overlapping claims. Besides China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and
Taiwan all have claims. Beijing claims most of the waters and rejected a 2016 international arbitration ruling its claims were invalid.