Asean states raise serious concern about sea dispute
VIENTIANE—Southeast Asian nations on Saturday expressed serious concern about growing international tensions over disputed waters in the South China Sea.
China claims most of the South China Sea, but Southeast Asian countries Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Vietnam have rival claims.
Taiwan is a sixth claimant, laying claim to all of the Spratly
archipelago in the middle of the South China Sea.
“Ministers remained seriously concerned over recent and ongoing developments,” the 10member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) said in a statement after a regular meeting of the group’s foreign ministers in Laos.
Land reclamation and escalating activity have increased tensions and could undermine peace, security and stability in the region, Asean said.
Tensions have ramped up since China began a massive land reclamation program in the South China Sea in 2013.
Recent satellite imagery suggests that China has installed surface-to-air missiles on Woody Island in the Paracel archipelago, which is claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan, and radar facilities on Philippine-claimed Calderon Reef (international name: Cuarteron Reef) in the Spratlys.
US call
The United States has criticized China’s building of artificial islands and military facilities in the South China Sea and has sailed warships close to disputed territory to assert the right to freedom of navigation.
On Friday, the United States urged China’s President Xi Jinping to prevent the militarization of the region.
Dan Kritenbrink, US President Barack Obama’s Asia adviser, spoke at the end of a week that saw China and the United States spar over Chinese military activities in the Paracels and in the Spratlys.
Xi pledged during a US state visit in September last year not to militarize the South China Sea, where $5 trillion in global trade passes every year and where islets, reefs and atolls are believed to be sitting atop vast deposits of oil and natural gas.
“We think it would be good if that non-militarization pledge, if he (Xi) would extend that across the South China Sea,” Kritenbrink told a conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“We’re going to encourage our Chinese friends and other countries in the region to refrain from taking steps that raise tensions,” Kritenbrink said.
‘Serious concerns’
Vietnam, which accused China of violating its sovereignty with the missile deployment, echoed the US call on Saturday.
“We call for non-militarization in the South China Sea,” Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh told reporters after meeting his Asean colleagues.
“We have serious concerns about that,” he said, when asked about China’s increasing military activity in the region.
Meeting with China
The group agreed to seek a meeting between China and Asean’s foreign ministers to discuss the South China Sea and other issues, Cambodian Minister Hor Namhong said.
No date or venue had been set for the meeting.
China’s maritime claims are Asean’s most contentious issue, as its members struggle to balance mutual support with their growing economic relations with Beijing.
China is the biggest trade partner for many Asean nations.
Common ground
Neighbors Vietnam and China compete for influence over landlocked Laos, which has no maritime claims but finds itself in the difficult position of dealing with neighbors at odds over the South China Sea.
Laos is tasked with finding common ground on the issue as the Asean chair in 2016.
“The South China Sea issue is a headache that Laos would really rather not have to deal with,” said one Western diplomat in Vientiane.
Thongloun Sisoulith, Laos deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, played down the challenge.
“We are a close friend of Vietnam and China, we try to solve the problems in a friendly way,” he told Reuters on Saturday.
“We are in the middle, but it’s not a problem,” he said.
Other matters
Other matters were on the agenda of the ministers, too.
They reiterated their perennial call for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
They also discussed Islamic extremism in the wake of an attack in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta in January that left eight people dead.
“The threat is real. It’s no longer fictitious or mere imagination,” said Anifah Aman, Malaysia’s foreign minister.
Other topics included ways to bring about ever closer economic cooperation since the advent of the Asean Economic Community at the end of last year.