Asean forum fails to reach accord
Nirmal Ghosh, Asia News Network (The Straits Times) | World | Sat, July
14 2012, 10:44 AM, http://www.thejakartapost.
ASEAN yesterday failed for the first time in its 45-year history to
produce a joint communiqué after days of heated debate saw the 10-member
grouping split over China and the South China Sea disputes.
The joint statement serves as a blueprint and agenda for subsequent
meetings, including the ASEAN summit later this year. But yesterday, as
the five-day ASEAN foreign ministers and regional security meetings
closed, it failed to appear, with most member states blaming the chair,
Cambodia.
Singapore's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Law K. Shanmugam called the
lack of an accord "unprecedented" and a "severe dent" on ASEAN's
credibility.
He told reporters: "ASEAN has gone through many more challenging times
and yet we have always managed to... at least reach a level of consensus
which reflects the lowest common denominator."
He said it was a blow to ASEAN credibility that it was "unable to deal
with something that's happening right here in our neighborhood and say
something about it".
He added: "There's no point in papering over it. There was a consensus
among the majority of countries. The role of the chair in that context
is to forge a complete consensus amongst all. But that did not happen."
Days of wrangling had ended in acrimony yesterday when the chairman,
Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, lashed out at "some countries"
for "holding the joint communiqué hostage to their bilateral disputes"
The minister meant the Philippines and Vietnam, which are among the four
ASEAN countries - including Brunei and Malaysia - that have conflicting
claims with China in the South China Sea.
The Philippines and Vietnam wanted the joint statement to include a
recent stand-off between Manila and Beijing at Scarborough Shoal as well
as exclusive economic zones and continental shelves.
Most ASEAN members supported this inclusion, which would not be the
first reference to the South China Sea. But the chair flatly refused,
even to the point of almost walking out of yesterday's last- ditch
effort to salvage the communiqué.
Other ASEAN officials at the meeting said the grouping had a history of
discussing the South China Sea and if it could make remarks of concern
on issues such as the Middle East, it made no sense that it could not
talk about an issue in its own backyard.
Sources who attended the meetings, asking not to be named, said
Cambodia's position was identical to China's. Beijing's position of
negotiating bilaterally puts smaller states at a disadvantage.
The chair's position was a sharp deviation from a longstanding ASEAN one
of negotiating with China as a bloc as the disputes involve four ASEAN
members.
The chair had used its position virtually like a veto, a Filipino
official said. "This is Cambodia's position, not ASEAN's position."
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said ASEAN had to look
forward. "Once the dust settles and once emotions cool, we have to ask
ourselves 'what next?'...We need to be clear. What is ASEAN's interest
in this issue? We need to assert our centrality." He said Indonesia
would never allow ASEAN to lose its centrality in the region because
"there is too much at stake here, more than simply the South China Sea".
Echoing him, Shanmugam said: "It is in our core interest to make sure
ASEAN is strong and credible in terms of security as well as economic
interests. ASEAN countries will have to come together and try and see
how we can move on...and try and recover from this".
ASEAN Concludes, Exposing S. China Sea Rifts
Irwin Loy, http://www.voanews.com/
July 13, 2012
PHNOM
PENH – Southeast Asian foreign ministers have failed to hammer out a
joint statement summarizing key regional meetings this week. Members of
the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations stumbled over how to deal with a
simmering dispute in the South China Sea. The unprecedented impasse has
left some officials pointing a finger at chair Cambodia, and it raises
questions on the cohesiveness of the 10-member bloc.
ASEAN’s failure to compile a basic statement has brought this week’s usually secretive back-room discussions to the forefront. As the meetings concluded on Friday, the Philippines blamed the impasse on Cambodia, which holds this year’s chair of the regional bloc.
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The Philippines, one of four ASEAN claimants to the South
China Sea, wanted the joint communique to include mention of discussions
regarding the Scarborough Shoal, a set of disputed islands in the body
of water.
ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam all claim overlapping parts of the South China Sea, along with Taiwan and China. But it is China’s influence on the issue that has proven the most divisive to ASEAN members.
In a news conference following the meetings Friday, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong defended the chair’s decision. Speaking through a translator, he said ASEAN should not be wading into territorial disputes - a position similar to Chinese views of the issue.
“Cambodia has taken a position of principle," he explained. "We are not a tribunal to decide the dispute. Here at the meeting of the ASEAN foreign ministers, we are not a tribunal to adjudicate who is right, who is wrong.”
Namhong instead suggested that ASEAN members with claims to the sea were attempting to hijack the process.
The failure to come to terms on a joint communique is unprecedented in the history of ASEAN ministerial meetings , says Carlyle Thayer, a specialist on ASEAN affairs at the University of New South Wales.
Thayer also says the failure to draft even a basic statement this week raises more fundamental questions for ASEAN.
“ASEAN has stood for being the guardian of South East Asia’s regional autonomy. Trying to provide the insulation against the intrusion of great powers," Thayer said. "What this indicates is that China has managed to break that insulation and influence one particular country. That’s going to affect any issues that begin to touch on China.”
Thayer says the issue may have exposed a rift among the ASEAN countries that have territorial disputes with China, and those that rely on China for trade. Cambodia has received hundreds of millions of dollars in soft loans and investment from China.
Still, ASEAN ministers downplayed the issue while acknowledging their concern Friday. Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa’s comments Friday were more tempered after he called the failure to reach a joint statement “irresponsible”, just a day earlier. He told reporters that the meetings had made him more inspired to push forward on an elusive ASEAN Code of Conduct, or COC, on the South China Sea dispute.
“If anything out of this meeting I am even more determined to push for the COC, so all these side happenings becomes more contextual," Natalegawa said. "Instead of the incidents, the tail wagging the dog, we should have a sense of purpose. We should move forward rather than being sidetracked by incidents.”
ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan stressed the need for members to move quickly on repairing what damage has been done.
“I can’t lay the blame on anyone, declared Pitsuwan. "I think it’s a collective responsibility for us to try to find the solution to this. I consider it a major hiccup. And we will have to recoup from this hiccup very quick and very fast.”
Cambodia remains in the chair for the next ASEAN leaders’ summit, scheduled for November.
ASEAN’s failure to compile a basic statement has brought this week’s usually secretive back-room discussions to the forefront. As the meetings concluded on Friday, the Philippines blamed the impasse on Cambodia, which holds this year’s chair of the regional bloc.
ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam all claim overlapping parts of the South China Sea, along with Taiwan and China. But it is China’s influence on the issue that has proven the most divisive to ASEAN members.
In a news conference following the meetings Friday, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong defended the chair’s decision. Speaking through a translator, he said ASEAN should not be wading into territorial disputes - a position similar to Chinese views of the issue.
“Cambodia has taken a position of principle," he explained. "We are not a tribunal to decide the dispute. Here at the meeting of the ASEAN foreign ministers, we are not a tribunal to adjudicate who is right, who is wrong.”
Namhong instead suggested that ASEAN members with claims to the sea were attempting to hijack the process.
The failure to come to terms on a joint communique is unprecedented in the history of ASEAN ministerial meetings , says Carlyle Thayer, a specialist on ASEAN affairs at the University of New South Wales.
Thayer also says the failure to draft even a basic statement this week raises more fundamental questions for ASEAN.
“ASEAN has stood for being the guardian of South East Asia’s regional autonomy. Trying to provide the insulation against the intrusion of great powers," Thayer said. "What this indicates is that China has managed to break that insulation and influence one particular country. That’s going to affect any issues that begin to touch on China.”
Thayer says the issue may have exposed a rift among the ASEAN countries that have territorial disputes with China, and those that rely on China for trade. Cambodia has received hundreds of millions of dollars in soft loans and investment from China.
Still, ASEAN ministers downplayed the issue while acknowledging their concern Friday. Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa’s comments Friday were more tempered after he called the failure to reach a joint statement “irresponsible”, just a day earlier. He told reporters that the meetings had made him more inspired to push forward on an elusive ASEAN Code of Conduct, or COC, on the South China Sea dispute.
“If anything out of this meeting I am even more determined to push for the COC, so all these side happenings becomes more contextual," Natalegawa said. "Instead of the incidents, the tail wagging the dog, we should have a sense of purpose. We should move forward rather than being sidetracked by incidents.”
ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan stressed the need for members to move quickly on repairing what damage has been done.
“I can’t lay the blame on anyone, declared Pitsuwan. "I think it’s a collective responsibility for us to try to find the solution to this. I consider it a major hiccup. And we will have to recoup from this hiccup very quick and very fast.”
Cambodia remains in the chair for the next ASEAN leaders’ summit, scheduled for November.
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