Local analysts on S China Sea row
SOME prominent political analysts believe that Cambodia – while serving as chair of ASEAN – should maintain its neutrality in the decades-old South China Sea dispute, which has been at a stalemate for many years, and continue to urge the ASEAN countries that are parties to the dispute and China to use bilateral mechanisms to resolve the matter rather than using the ASEAN framework as a tribunal.
Recently, while Cambodia was chair of ASEAN this year, Prime Minister Hun Sen expressed his desire to find a negotiated solution to the South China Sea dispute.
On September 27, Hun Sen told Charles Michel, President of the European Council, that Cambodia wanted to see the full implementation of the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and that Cambodia would try hard to push the COC negotiations forward in the future.
Van Bonna, a researcher at the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP), said he thinks that the reason why the South China Sea has become one of the most important and controversial strategic waterways in the 21st century, is because the parties to the conflict – which includes China and four ASEAN members: Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines – have not given up their claims and have refused to compromise.
Similarly, Thong Mengdavid, researcher at the Asian Vision Institute (AVI), states that the South China Sea issue has a lot to do with issues concerning international law and maritime law, historical issues, economic issues and national interests as well as questions of strategic military and trade value.
Mengdavid said that parts of the South China Sea are of very high strategic value
and serve as invaluable trade routes for the global economy with more than 50 per cent of world’s products passing through these waterways and an additional billions of dollars in natural resources found under the water. Not only that, it is also a connection gateway between the west and the east.
Back in 2002, when Cambodia hosted the first ASEAN Summit, the bloc signed the joint Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) along with China, which essentially states that they will continue to negotiate peacefully to achieve an agreed upon Code of Conduct for the South China Sea (COC).
Separately, 10 years later in 2012 when Cambodia chaired ASEAN once again, Cambodia was unable to issue a joint statement or finalize the COC as the parties to the dispute would not accept the facilitation and criticized Cambodia, claiming it was biased in favour of China.
Regarding the controversies that prevent the South China Sea dispute from being resolved,
Mengdavid claimed that it was due to the interests and strategies of the countries involved that didn’t comply with international law.
Moreover, it was observed that military skirmishes and verbal jousting between ASEAN members and China had often taken place, leading to the stalemated drafting of the COC.
Kin Phea, the director of the Royal Academy of Cambodia’s International Relations Institute, said that the previous settlement mechanisms such as the tribunal were “unjust” and reflected external interference by the west in the sovereignty of the countries bordering the South China Sea.
“The US still adheres to its supremacy and does not want a solution to the question of the division of sovereignty over the South China Sea as the US wants this sea to remain international waters with freedom of navigation and over flight, because it is adjacent to China and because there are important international ports there. If there was a division of control it would make sea navigation
and aviation more difficult, which would affect the US and other powerful countries’ interests,” he explained.
Bonna cited pragmatic theories regarding China’s ambition to become the world’s sole superpower. This would require China to become a regionally dominant country first and that is an apparent factor in China’s desire to occupy and control the South China Sea, which would add to its political weight on the international stage.
Bonna added that this longstanding maritime ownership dispute has disturbed not only the relationship between China and ASEAN’s countries, it also stoked complex internal conflicts within ASEAN between members such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines.
Regarding DOC, Bonna emphasized that the DOC, which was signed in 2002, was a mechanism for the parties to the dispute to resolve the issue peacefully and acted as a basis for future negotiations.
He added that the DOC was a legal mechanism or procedure for resolving disputes through the establishment or use of existing international tribunals, and it has a limited composition of only China and the four ASEAN member states.
In 2016, the Philippines filed suit against China at an international tribunal, which ruled against China and in favour of the Philippines’ claims to certain islands and waters in the South China Sea.
The tribunal also indicated that China’s demarcation of its territorial waters within the South China Sea was done unilaterally, did not reflect actual historical claims and was done in violation of the sovereignty of the nations disputing China’s claims. China rejected the tribunal’s findings despite its previous signature on the DOC.
As the chair of ASEAN this year, Bonna believes that Cambodia should maintain a neutral stance by not supporting China or any ASEAN member in the dispute. Cambodia should urge each party to join the negotiation table peacefully and using mechanisms such as the international law on maritime affairs like the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Phea also wants Cambodia to remain neutral and for all parties to remain calm and continue to respect the DOC consistently and fully while negotiating the COC as soon as possible.
Mengdavid said that Cambodia must try to facilitate the negotiations between China and the ASEAN member countries and discuss legal measures and making possible economic and political concessions to each other in order to achieve a peaceful settlement through diplomacy and international law.
All of the analysts agreed that Cambodia should avoid being drawn into the conflict or being forced to take sides or allow a situation where it becomes the entire ASEAN bloc lined up against China.