Posts tagged ‘Southeast Asia’

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23/11/2012

* Southeast Asian Nations Announce Trade Bloc to Rival U.S. Effort

It is not clear to me what motivates ASEAN nations to try and forma trading bloc that includes China, while Obama had initiated a similar pact to exclude China.  If may be a way of mollifying the strong stance ASEAN had taken regarding the South China Sea disputes. A ‘quid pro quo’ as it were.

NY Times: “Ten Southeast Asian nations said Tuesday that they would begin negotiating a sweeping trade pact that would include China and five of the region’s other major trading partners, but not the United States.

The proposal for the new trade bloc, to be known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, is enthusiastically embraced by China. The founding members, who belong to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said at the close of the association’s summit meeting here that the bloc would cover nearly half of the world’s population, starting in 2015.

The new grouping is seen as a rival to a trade initiative of the Obama administration, the 11-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, which includes many of the same countries but excludes China.”

via Southeast Asian Nations Announce Trade Bloc to Rival U.S. Effort – NYTimes.com.

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22/11/2012

* China might be moving to ASEAN agreement on S China Seas= dispute

If China does agree to ASEAN multi-lateral agreement on South China Sea dispute, it will probably be the first time. It much prefers to do bilateral deals; conforming tot the old principle of ‘divide and conquer’.

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18/11/2012

* Southeast Asia calls for talks with China on sea dispute

S E Asia may be joining hands to call China to the discussion table; but China really dislikes being pressured and much prefers one-to-one dialogue and bi-lateral agreements.

Reuters: “Southeast Asian nations displayed a rare show of unity on Sunday against China’s sweeping maritime claims, calling for the first formal talks with Beijing over a sea dispute that has raised tensions and exposed deep divisions in the region.

(L - R)Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Thailand Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah hold hands during the opening ceremony of the 21st ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and East Asia summits in Phnom Penh November 18, 2012. REUTERS-Samrang Pring

As Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in Cambodia for meetings with Southeast Asian leaders, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) appeared determined to avoid a repeat of an embarrassing breakdown of talks in July over competing claims in the mineral-rich South China Sea, its biggest security challenge.

Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen will tell Wen that ASEAN wants to begin talks on a binding Code of Conduct, aimed at reducing the chance of naval flashpoints, as soon as possible, ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan told reporters.

“Prime Minister Hun Sen himself will be discussing with the PM of China tonight and delivering this consensus on the ASEAN side,” Surin said.

“They would like to see the commencement of the discussion as soon as possible because this is an issue of interest, concern and worry of the international community.”

China’s assertive claims in the South China Sea have sown deep divisions within the bloc at a time when military spending in the region is surging and the United States refocuses attention on Asia – a “pivot” that President Barack Obama will reinforce on his visit to the summit on Monday in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh.

Chinese ally Cambodia has used its powers as ASEAN chair this year to restrict discussion of the issue, in line with Beijing’s view that the disputes should be discussed on a bilateral basis. China has said it is willing to discuss the Code of Conduct when the “time is right.”

Diplomats said the Philippines, a close U.S. ally, had invited fellow Southeast Asian claimant states Vietnam, Brunei, and Malaysia to separate talks in Manila to be held later this year or early next year.

“We are trying to make that happen, hopefully in Manila,” Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told reporters.

The other members of ASEAN include Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia, none of which have claims on the South China Sea.

One Philippine diplomat said the meeting was aimed at resolving issues among the claimant states, such as overlapping economic zones. He voiced frustration with China for delaying the start of talks with ASEAN over the Code of Conduct.

“ASEAN has done its part,” the diplomat said. “Now it is up to China to also come up with its own because when we formally sit down we will present our position to them. In fact we have already written it.””

via Southeast Asia calls for talks with China on sea dispute | Reuters.

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Posted in China alert, Diplomacy, GeoPolitics, Instability, Neighbour conflict, Politics, Territorial dispute | 4 Comments »

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18/10/2012

* Feuds in the Pacific over islands: it’s not simply a case of China against everyone else

Unfortunately for China, its recent military posturing has obscured the fact that territorial claims in the South China Sea is not only between China and its neighbours but endemic.

WorldTimes: “When it comes to feuds in the Pacific over islands and what lies beneath, it’s not simply a case of China against everyone else. Depending on the dispute, it’s also South Korea vs. Japan, Japan vs. Taiwan, Taiwan vs. Vietnam, Vietnam vs. Cambodia and numerous other permutations — for many of the same reasons supposedly behind China’s actions. Resource grab. Patriotic posturing. Historical baggage (mostly to do with Japan’s brutal occupation of most of East Asia before and through World War II). Referring to the South China Sea, former ASEAN secretary general Rodolfo Severino, who now heads Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, wrote recently that “all claimants feel their footholds are essential to what they consider their national interests … This clash of national interests … makes it most difficult even to appear to be making compromises on national integrity or maritime regimes and, thus, almost impossible to resolve [the] disputes.””

Read more: http://world.time.com/2012/08/19/why-asias-maritime-disputes-are-not-just-about-china/#ixzz29dhhV78F

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20/07/2012

* ASEAN to claim common ground on South China Sea, but no communiqué

Reuters: “Southeast Asian states have reached a “common position” on the disputed South China Sea, but will not resurrect a joint communiqué aborted after unprecedented discord over the issue at a summit last week, Indonesia’s Foreign Minister said on Friday.

Marty Natalegawa sought to put a positive gloss on two days of shuttle diplomacy that failed to rally members of the Association of Southeast Asian nations (ASEAN) behind a belated, face-saving communiqué.

They had failed to agree the customary end-of-summit joint statement last Friday for the first time in the bloc’s 45-year history. The divisions follow a rise in incidents of naval brinkmanship involving Chinese vessels in the oil-rich waters that has sparked fears of a military clash.

Natalegawa told Reuters the 10 members had agreed on the components of an ASEAN “instrument” that would be issued by chair Cambodia later on Friday and would detail what was agreed upon during last week’s ASEAN Regional Forum in Phnom Penh, including the maritime dispute.

“We are trying so that other decisions made by the foreign ministers will be formulated in a different instrument for follow up,” Natalegawa told Reuters.

“The non-existence of a joint communiqué is behind us,” he said, adding that the customary communiqué was aborted last week because one of the four paragraphs relating to the South China Sea in the 132-paragraph draft could not be agreed on.

Disputes over how to address the increasingly assertive role of China – an ally of several ASEAN states – in the strategic waters of the South China Sea has placed the issue squarely as Southeast Asia’s biggest potential military flashpoint.

China has territorial claims over a huge area covering waters that Vietnam and the Philippines say they also have sovereignty over. All three countries are eager to tap possibly huge offshore oil reserves.

The failure to issue the communiqué and the bitter rows behind closed doors over what words to use and what to exclude have been a huge embarrassment for a 10-member bloc planning to form an EU-style economic community by 2015.

The row illustrated how Southeast Asian nations have been polarized by China’s rapidly expanding influence in the region and the economic dependence on Beijing that some of ASEAN’s poorer states now have, among the Cambodia, this year’s chair.”

via ASEAN to claim common ground on South China Sea, but no communiqué | Reuters.

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13/07/2012

* SE Asia meeting in disarray over sea dispute with China

Reuters: “Southeast Asian nations have failed to reach agreement on a maritime dispute involving China, ending a foreign ministers’ summit in disarray after Beijing appeared to split the 10 countries over the contentious issue.

The Philippines said in a statement on Friday that it “deplores” the failure of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit to address the worsening row, and criticized Cambodia in unusually strong language for its handling of the issue.

China has been accused of using its heavy influence over summit chair Cambodia and several other ASEAN members to block regional-level discussions on the issue and attempts to agree a binding maritime Code of Conduct.

The Philippines said it took “strong exception” to Cambodia’s statement that the non-issuance of a communiqué was due to “bilateral conflict between some ASEAN member states and a neighboring country”.

It said it had only requested that the communiqué mention the recent standoff between Chinese and Philippine ships at the Scarborough Shoal, a horseshoe-shaped reef in waters that both countries claim.

“The Chair has consistently opposed any mention of the Scarborough Shoal at all in the Joint Communiqué and today announced that a Joint Communiqué ‘cannot be issued’,” the Philippine statement said.

The failure to issue a joint statement marks a sharp deterioration in efforts to cool tensions following recent incidents of naval brinkmanship over the oil-rich waters.

China, whose trade and investment ties with Cambodia have surged in recent years, has warned that “external forces” should not get involved in the dispute. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also lay claim to parts of the South China Sea.”

via SE Asia meeting in disarray over sea dispute with China | Reuters.

Despite good intentions, territorial imperatives overcame desire for resolution.

See also: China’s external tensions

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02/04/2012

* Sino-ASEAN ties key to peace in S. China Sea

China Daily: “China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations should work hard to boost practical cooperation and maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea, said a joint statement due to be issued on Monday by China and Cambodia. According to the statement, the two countries agreed that “China and ASEAN countries shall continue to abide by the purpose and spirit of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea and give full play to all the existing mechanisms including the guidelines for the implementation of the DOC to make it a sea of peace, friendship and cooperation for China and ASEAN countries”.

Monday is the final day of President Hu Jintao’s four-day state visit to Cambodia, which holds the rotating chair of ASEAN in 2012 and plays an important role in East Asian cooperation and China-ASEAN relations. It also comes just two days ahead of a two-day regional summit of ASEAN in Phnom Penh.”

via Sino-ASEAN ties key to peace in S. China Sea|Politics|chinadaily.com.cn.

Given the increasing tension in the South China Seas due to conflicting oceanic territoriual claims, where large depositis of oil and gas are predicted, this must be good news.

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