Stability for prosperity

Unlike last year, leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations came out with a joint communiqué yesterday at the end of their summit in Bandar Seri Begawan. This time there was no hesitation or bickering among members in pushing for a code of conduct in the South China Sea that will be in accordance with international law.

Host Brunei Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah also called on ASEAN members and China to discuss measures that will ensure peace and stability in the region. China lays claim to almost all the waters around it including the West Philippine Sea. A decade ago ASEAN and China adopted a declaration on the conduct of parties in those waters. Beijing, however, has been increasingly aggressive in staking its claim over disputed seas, including areas way beyond its 200-mile exclusive economic zone.

Beijing has insisted that all territorial claims must be settled bilaterally. But the waters it is claiming lap at the shores of many of its neighbors. This calls for a regional response. Manila, disappointed by ASEAN’s failure to come up with a common stand on the issue during last year’s summit in Cambodia, has gone to the United Nations for arbitral proceedings on the Philippines’ maritime entitlements.

China has often said its neighbors have nothing to fear with its “peaceful rise,” pointing out that the country has prospered in a peaceful environment. Its actions in surrounding waters, however, have been the biggest cause of regional tension for the past two decades. Beijing has also failed to curb poaching and the harvesting or acquisition of endangered species by its people. In the latest incident, a Chinese ship struck Tubbataha Reef in the Sulu Sea, which is clearly within Philippine territory. The ship was found to contain 400 boxes of frozen scaly anteaters, an endangered species.

ASEAN now appears united in seeking to bring down tension and enhance regional peace. Stability promotes prosperity. All countries in the region know this and should work for it.