Time for ASEAN to wake up
REFLECTING on the power of words, the great German thinker Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “All I need is a sheet of paper and something to write with, and then I can turn the world upside down.” In international diplomacy, particularly here in Asia, words do matter. And they matter a lot, especially if the topic at hand concerns sovereignty claims and territorial integrity.
In diplomacy, words are a gauge of the political will, internal coherence, and principles of sovereign states. This is precisely why seasoned diplomats and negotiators spend days, if not years, debating on the exact wording of treaties, agreements, resolutions, and press releases by their respective governments and organizations.
Five decades into its conception, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) isn’t only short on action, but it is increasingly – and alarmingly – also short on words. Last year, during Laos’ chairmanship of the regional body, there wasn’t even a mention of the Philippines’ landmark arbitration case against China.
Without a question, the ASEAN is not only failing to live up to expectations; it is also failing to fulfill its standard obligations: namely, ensure a rule-based, dialogue-driven management and resolution of disputes among regional states, both members as well as strategic partners.
The question now is: Beyond vacuous joint statements and photo-ops, what is the point of the regional body? Are we spending tens of millions of dollars every year for inconsequential workshops? What happened to “ASEAN centrality”?
As early as 1992, ASEAN states vowed to develop common rules of the road in addressing the South China Sea disputes. Exactly a decade after, regional states along with China signed the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties (DOC) in the South China Sea. Both of these declaratory documents were clearly just a prelude to the development of a binding Code of Conduct (COC) as the ultimate reference point in effectively managing, and if possible decisively settling, the maritime spats.
We are already in the year 2017, the 50th anniversary of the founding of the ASEAN and 15 years after the signing of the DOC. As of this writing, there has been no concrete movement towards even negotiating the parameters and guiding framework of a COC – never mind a legally binding document per se. This is dispiritingly unacceptable for any self-respecting body of nations.
Time and again, I have heard senior regional officials, including from China, telling me that, “we need to be patient, diplomacy takes time.” Yet, on the ground, claimant states, particularly China, are changing facts on a daily basis. Deploying state-of-the-art engineering, some claimant states are transforming rocks into islands, sand into airstrips, and international waters into a blue soil.
In an event of an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) declaration, that means even transforming international air into sovereign space. And yet, there doesn’t seem to be any urge, among Southeast Asian states, to directly and collectively call upon belligerent states to respect the spirit and the letter of international law and existing agreements, including the COC.
Lamenting the “illusion” of ASEAN centrality, Singaporean diplomat Barry Desker has rightfully pointed out the glaring lack of cohesion and unity among regional states, primarily due to how the consensus-based decision-making principle has been hijacked by external powers, who “shape the positions of ASEAN members on regional issues such as the competing maritime claims in the South China Sea.”
As a claimant state, chairman of the ASEAN, and a pillar of international law, it is incumbent upon the Philippines to steer a robust and honest conversation among regional states on a rule-based management of the South China Sea disputes. The alternative is the rule of the jungle, where might makes right.
At the very least, this year, the regional body, at its 50th anniversary, should finalize a framework agreement of a COC and negotiate a clear timetable and finalize basic principles of a legally binding document between ASEAN and China. Otherwise, it’s time to bid goodbye to ASEAN centrality for once and for all.