Their comments, distributed to media by Malaysia before the statement was withdrawn, came amid China’s diplomatic blitz to discredit a coming international legal ruling on territorial claims that is expected to deliver a setback for Beijing.
In a Tuesday statement issued after a meeting with China’s foreign minister, top diplomats from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations urged respect for international law in resolving disputes, a thinly veiled swipe at Beijing’s refusal to accept the ruling from an arbitration tribunal in The Hague.
In recent weeks, the U.S. and other governments have criticized Beijing for what they term as disregard for international maritime law. The Asean ministers’ comments conveyed an unusually strong tone for a 10-member bloc that has often been divided in its response to China’s growing assertiveness in regional maritime disputes.
Hours after the statement was issued, Malaysia’s foreign ministry said Asean was retracting the document to make some changes. No explanation was given, and as of late Tuesday evening the bloc still hadn’t issued an amended statement.
A senior diplomat from an Asean country later said that the bloc has decided not to issue a joint statement and member states would release individual statements if they desired. An Asean spokesman said the bloc’s secretariat in Jakarta never received a joint statement for circulation and had “no details” on what happened at Tuesday’s meeting, held in the southern Chinese city of Yuxi.
Before the retraction, Singapore and Indonesia’s foreign ministries had separately issued individual statements that echoed the key points in the Asean ministers’ joint proclamation, but didn’t go into specific details.
Vietnam, which has clashed with China over competing claims, later issued a statement that mirrored the retracted statement more closely. Going further than Singapore and Indonesia, Hanoi said ministers were especially concerned about the building and militarization of artificial islands in the region, and that they urged China and Asean to respect principles of international law.
Asean, which makes decisions by consensus, has in the past struggled to find a common voice on the South China Sea disputes. Some members advocate a tougher response against Beijing, while others are reluctant to antagonize a powerful economic partner. Such discord boiled over in 2012 when a meeting of Asean foreign ministers failed to yield a joint communiqué for the first time in the bloc’s history.
In the original statement, the Asean ministers expressed their “serious concerns over recent and ongoing developments, which have eroded trust and confidence, increased tensions and which may have the potential to undermine peace, security and stability in the South China Sea.”
The Asean foreign ministers didn’t explicitly blame China for stoking tensions or refer directly to The Hague tribunal, which is expected to rule within weeks on an arbitration case filed by the Philippines in 2013 to challenge Beijing’s sweeping maritime claims.
Instead they reiterated their opposition to “militarization” and land reclamation efforts in the South China Sea, in reference to Beijing’s efforts over the past two years to construct artificial islands with facilities that could serve military purposes. The Asean ministers also called for compliance with international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, under which The Hague tribunal was set up.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, speaking at a televised news briefing, didn’t refer directly to the arbitration case, but said that China and the Philippines explained their respective positions on the dispute during Tuesday’s meeting.
“The differences between China and the Philippines are well-known to all, but this isn’t an issue between China and Asean,” Mr. Wang said. “Cooperation between China and Asean is far greater than any specific discord, including the South China Sea dispute.”
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