Tension over South China Sea disputes
BANGKOK — Southeast Asian foreign ministers opened their annual meeting Wednesday with a call from host Thailand for deeper integration amid rising global challenges and a pledge from China that differences will be “properly” resolved amid growing tensions in the South China Sea.
The meeting is taking place in the shadows of rising security tensions on the Korean Peninsula, China’s aggressive territorial claims in the South China Sea and the U.S.China trade war.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a 10country bloc seeking to boost its own voice as a global player, is also playing host to a series of foreign ministers from key strategic and dialogue partners, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai told ASEAN colleagues that they must be “more agile” amid increasing nationalism globally.
“We must recognize that looking inward and being myopic is not our option and never will be,” Don said in his opening speech. “Amid a great turmoil, we must be more outward and forward looking than ever before.”
The struggle for influence between the U.S. and China has put ASEAN in a tight spot. At their summit in June, ASEAN leaders adopted an IndoPacific engagement framework that sought to find a middle ground and keep on the good side of both Washington and Beijing.
Beijing is attempting to project its influence globally through its Belt and Road Initiative, an ambitious development program of major infrastructure projects, while Washington is using the Free and Open IndoPacific strategy, which Beijing says is directed against it.
ASEAN’s concerns about China are sharpest in the South China Sea, where Beijing is using a projection of force to maintain a territorial claim over a huge area, with parts overlapping claims by ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that ASEAN and China had in the past year explored a “rulesbased approach” to the governance of the South China Sea and aims to conclude talks on a Code of Conduct within three years.
Tensions flared anew earlier this month after Vietnam accused China of violating its sovereignty by interfering with offshore oil and gas activities in disputed waters.