Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (L) poses during the family photo at the 15th
ASEAN-China summit meeting at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, November
19, 2012. Also in the picture is Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen.
REUTERS/ Samrang Pring
PHNOM PENH/BEIJING (Reuters) - When U.S. President Barack Obama and
more than a dozen leaders arrived in Cambodia for a regional summit
meeting this week, only one of them was feted with banners strung from
the venue gates.
"Welcome Prime Minister Wen Jiabao!" one proclaimed. "Long live the People's Republic of China!" read another.
As
the leaders left, the green-and-white banners were still festooned
outside Phnom Penh's Peace Palace, a fitting reminder of China's
powerful and growing clout as Beijing uses its influence - and money -
to win friends and frustrate those uneasy about its sweeping territorial
claims and rising military strength.
"Some states are easily
swayed by money. If they see cash, they easily throw away their
principles," said one Asian diplomat at the East Asia Summit, which
included heads of state from 10 Southeast Asia countries and
counterparts from the United States, China, Japan and other Asia-Pacific
nations.
"China has been throwing its weight around and buying the loyalties of some Asian states."
A
prime example is Cambodia, whose prime minister, Hun Sen, helped China
to notch up a succession of diplomatic victories at the summit. China
stalled debate on a resolution of maritime disputes in the South China
Sea, rebutted attempts by Southeast Asian nations to start formal talks
on the issue and avoided any rebuke from Obama over territorial
ambitions. Commentators declared China a clear summit winner.
A
closing statement by Hun Sen, this year's chair of the 10-member
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), made no mention of the
South China Sea, another victory for China's attempts to prevent
multilateral talks on the dispute.
China has poured investments
and loans into Cambodia in recent years, becoming its biggest trade
partner and bilateral creditor. Cambodia's debt to China now totals at
least $4.7 billion, about a third of its economy.
The price of
that largesse has become clear this year, say analysts, as Cambodia has
used its powers as ASEAN chair to restrict debate over the vexed issue
of China's maritime claims, dividing the group and infuriating U.S. ally
the Philippines.
The 45-year-old ASEAN group has been built on a
foundation of unanimity and unity, but that has unravelled as it
struggles to cope with its biggest security challenge. In July, a
meeting of the region's foreign ministers broke down in unprecedented
acrimony and failed to agree a communique for the first time.
This
week's ASEAN meetings again deteriorated into bad-tempered sniping and
came close to a breakdown when Hun Sen adopted a draft statement saying
there was a consensus not to "internationalise" the South China Sea
dispute beyond ASEAN and China.
The Philippines, which sees its
alliance with the United States as a crucial check on China's claims at a
time when Washington is shifting its military focus back to Asia, made a
formal protest to Cambodia and succeeded in having that clause removed
from the final statement.
China then poked fun at Manila's
assertion that there had been no consensus. Eight out of 10 leaders had
agreed not to internationalise the dispute, meaning there was a
consensus, said Qin Gang, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman.
"I suggest that people when attending the EAS (East Asia Summit) meetings have to be very good at mathematics," he said.
"That's 10 minus two, so which is bigger?"
NAVAL BUILDUP
Beijing
claims a vast U-shaped line around the South China Sea that brushes up
against the coasts of the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia. The
area is thought to hold vast, untapped reserves of oil and natural gas,
and naval flashpoints between Chinese vessels and the Philippine and
Vietnamese navy have become increasingly common.
Hopes for a
diplomatic resolution within the ASEAN-China framework look bleak in the
next two years as tiny Brunei and then Myanmar take up the chairmanship
of the group.
Cambodia, like fellow "Mekong" countries Laos and
Myanmar, has been rapidly pulled into China's economic orbit through
rocketing trade and investment ties.
It has become customary for
Chinese officials to arrive in Cambodia bearing "gifts", such as the
$100 million investment that Wen announced on his arrival this week to
build the emerging country's biggest cement plant. China has moved
nimbly to set up free trade deals with Southeast Asia nations and has
played a dominant role in financing and building big infrastructure
projects in Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar.
After the summit, Wen
visited Thailand where he signed an understanding to buy rice, which
should strongly lift Beijing's standing with a government that is a
close ally of the United States. Bangkok has built up record stockpiles
of 14 million tonnes of milled rice after a populist programme to pay
farmers more for their crops made exports unprofitable.
If
diplomatic efforts stall, China's options to back its claims with force
if needed are steadily growing with a military budget that outstrips the
combined spending of Southeast Asia.
As China ushered in a new
generation of leaders this month, outgoing President Hu Jintao made a
pointed reference to strengthening China's naval forces, protecting
maritime interests, and the need to "win local war."
"We should
make active planning for the use of military forces in peacetime, expand
and intensify military preparedness, and enhance the capability to
accomplish a wide range of military tasks, the most important of which
is to win local war in an information age," Hu said.
Besides the
South China Sea, China is embroiled in a dispute with Japan, also a
close U.S. ally, over islands in the East China Sea.
China's
stance is that it is not trying to become an offensive naval power, but
wants to secure its energy imports and boost development of maritime
natural resources, which are expected to represent 10 percent of its
economy by 2015.
But it is also wary of being encircled as the
United States refocuses its military clout on Asia in what Obama has
called a "pivot" back to the region as wars in the Middle East wind
down.
"It is absolutely (a buildup)," said Ruan Zongze, deputy
director of the China Institute of International Studies, the think-tank
of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
"No matter what kind of
narrative you use, the reality is that America in the past three years
has been putting greater emphasis or focus on the west Pacific. That
raises a lot of questions for China."
China launched its first
aircraft carrier in September, increasing its ability to project forces
deeper into "blue-water" maritime territory. Bought from Ukraine
ostensibly to use as a floating casino, the Chinese navy spent years
refurbishing the carrier, which is undergoing sea trials. It also
test-flew two types of stealth fighters this year, the second one last
month - a smaller, more maneuverable model believed to be designed to be
deployed on an aircraft carrier.
"China has ambitions to become
the premier military power among its regional peers, and a serious
threat to U.S. maritime primacy in the Asia Pacific," said Sam
Roggeveen, an Asian defence analyst with the Lowy Institute in Sydney.
Roggeveen
added that if China were to deploy more than one carrier and equip them
with high-performance stealth fighters, "it would become the
pre-eminent regional maritime power, with the ability to coerce
neighbours in disputes in which the U.S. prefers not to get involved".
By Stuart Grudgings and Terril Yue Jones
(Additional reporting by James Pomfret and Manuel Mogato in PHNOM PENH; Editing by Jason Szep and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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Asean nations feud over South China Sea
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Showing posts with label Asean Summit 2012. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Asean Summit 2012. Show all posts
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Asean nations feud over South China Sea
PHNOM PENH - Southeast Asian leaders feuded on Monday over how to
handle tense maritime territorial disputes with China, overshadowing
talks at a regional summit meant to strengthen trade and political ties.
The leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations had hoped to present a united front on the South China Sea row as they host Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and US President Barack Obama for annual talks.
But that effort broke down just before Southeast Asian leaders were scheduled to meet Wen, amid divisions between Chinese ally Cambodia and the Philippines.
Cambodia, this year's ASEAN chair, said on Sunday that Southeast Asian leaders had agreed not to "internationalise" the disputes and would confine negotiations to those between the bloc and China.
The apparent deal would have been a victory for China, which has long insisted that it should only negotiate directly with rival countries and that the Philippines should not seek support from the United States.
However Philippine President Benigno Aquino on Monday publicly rebuked Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, telling his fellow leaders no such consensus had been reached and he would continue to speak out on the global stage.
"The Philippines... has the inherent right to defend its national interests when deemed necessary," Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told reporters, quoting Aquino's comments to his fellow leaders on Monday morning.
The feud echoed unprecedented infighting at an ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting in Phnom Penh in July, which ended for the first time in the bloc's 45-year history without a joint communique.
The Philippines and Vietnam had wanted the communique to make specific reference to their disputes with China. But Cambodia, the hosts of the talks and a close China ally, blocked the moves.
ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Taiwan, have claims to parts of the sea, which is home to some of the world's most important shipping lanes and believed to be rich in fossil fuels.
But China insists it has sovereign rights to virtually all of the sea.
Tensions have risen steadily over the past two years, with the Philippines and Vietnam accusing China of increasingly aggressive diplomatic tactics to stake its claims.
Temperatures could rise again later Monday when Obama arrives in Phnom Penh to join the East Asia Summit, a two-day event also involving the leaders of Japan, South Korea, India, New Zealand and Australia.
Obama has previously angered China, and emboldened the Philippines, by calling for the rival claimants to agree on a legally binding code of conduct to govern their actions over the sea.
Analysts said he would likely repeat that call in Phnom Penh, as well as make comments highlighting the importance of freedom of navigation in the sea.
ASEAN officials had said they would push Wen during their talks on Monday to quickly start high-level, formal negotiations on a code of conduct.
But Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang insisted that China wanted to continue with the current arrangement of lower-level talks on the issue. "We already have good discussions with ASEAN," Qin said.
Even with the South China Sea row festering, countries involved in the East Asia Summit were expected to focus on ways to expand economic ties.
ASEAN nations are set to officially launch negotiations on Tuesday for an enormous free trade pact with China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
And despite their own territorial rows, China, Japan and South Korea are likely to hold talks in Phnom Penh on Tuesday aimed at kickstarting three-way free trade negotiations, according to Qin. - AFP
Phnom Penh (AFP) Nov 19, 2012 - Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao told Southeast Asian leaders Monday that negotiations to end territorial disputes in the South China Sea should only be held between claimant countries.
Wen stressed Beijing's position during a summit with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.
Qin said Wen quoted from a 2002 deal reached between ASEAN and China in which they agreed to limit negotiations to "directly concerned" countries.
Wen said that among the principles under the 10-year-old declaration is to "oppose the internationalisation of the issue".
"So Premier Wen quoted the principles... enshrined in the declaration," according to Qin.
ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Taiwan, have claims to parts of the sea, which is also believed to be rich in fossil fuels.
But China insists it has sovereign rights to virtually all of the sea.
Tensions have risen steadily over the past two years, with the Philippines and Vietnam accusing China of increasingly aggressive diplomatic tactics to stake its claims.
The Philippines has consistently sought wider help, such as from close ally the United States, in dealing with its more powerful Asian neighbour on the South China Sea issue.
The controversy of "internationalisation" flared again in Phnom Penh this week with the Philippines insisting it should not have to confine its negotiations to just with China.
US President Barack Obama, who arrived in Phnom Penh on Monday night for an 18-nation East Asia Summit, was also expected to raise his concerns over the South China Sea, which would anger the Chinese but embolden the Philippines.
Related posts:
Asean, an arena of superpowers
The leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations had hoped to present a united front on the South China Sea row as they host Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and US President Barack Obama for annual talks.
But that effort broke down just before Southeast Asian leaders were scheduled to meet Wen, amid divisions between Chinese ally Cambodia and the Philippines.
Cambodia, this year's ASEAN chair, said on Sunday that Southeast Asian leaders had agreed not to "internationalise" the disputes and would confine negotiations to those between the bloc and China.
The apparent deal would have been a victory for China, which has long insisted that it should only negotiate directly with rival countries and that the Philippines should not seek support from the United States.
However Philippine President Benigno Aquino on Monday publicly rebuked Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, telling his fellow leaders no such consensus had been reached and he would continue to speak out on the global stage.
"The Philippines... has the inherent right to defend its national interests when deemed necessary," Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told reporters, quoting Aquino's comments to his fellow leaders on Monday morning.
The feud echoed unprecedented infighting at an ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting in Phnom Penh in July, which ended for the first time in the bloc's 45-year history without a joint communique.
The Philippines and Vietnam had wanted the communique to make specific reference to their disputes with China. But Cambodia, the hosts of the talks and a close China ally, blocked the moves.
ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Taiwan, have claims to parts of the sea, which is home to some of the world's most important shipping lanes and believed to be rich in fossil fuels.
But China insists it has sovereign rights to virtually all of the sea.
Tensions have risen steadily over the past two years, with the Philippines and Vietnam accusing China of increasingly aggressive diplomatic tactics to stake its claims.
Temperatures could rise again later Monday when Obama arrives in Phnom Penh to join the East Asia Summit, a two-day event also involving the leaders of Japan, South Korea, India, New Zealand and Australia.
Obama has previously angered China, and emboldened the Philippines, by calling for the rival claimants to agree on a legally binding code of conduct to govern their actions over the sea.
Analysts said he would likely repeat that call in Phnom Penh, as well as make comments highlighting the importance of freedom of navigation in the sea.
ASEAN officials had said they would push Wen during their talks on Monday to quickly start high-level, formal negotiations on a code of conduct.
But Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang insisted that China wanted to continue with the current arrangement of lower-level talks on the issue. "We already have good discussions with ASEAN," Qin said.
Even with the South China Sea row festering, countries involved in the East Asia Summit were expected to focus on ways to expand economic ties.
ASEAN nations are set to officially launch negotiations on Tuesday for an enormous free trade pact with China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
And despite their own territorial rows, China, Japan and South Korea are likely to hold talks in Phnom Penh on Tuesday aimed at kickstarting three-way free trade negotiations, according to Qin. - AFP
China opposes 'internationalisation' of sea row
Phnom Penh (AFP) Nov 19, 2012 - Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao told Southeast Asian leaders Monday that negotiations to end territorial disputes in the South China Sea should only be held between claimant countries.
Wen stressed Beijing's position during a summit with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.
Qin said Wen quoted from a 2002 deal reached between ASEAN and China in which they agreed to limit negotiations to "directly concerned" countries.
Wen said that among the principles under the 10-year-old declaration is to "oppose the internationalisation of the issue".
"So Premier Wen quoted the principles... enshrined in the declaration," according to Qin.
ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Taiwan, have claims to parts of the sea, which is also believed to be rich in fossil fuels.
But China insists it has sovereign rights to virtually all of the sea.
Tensions have risen steadily over the past two years, with the Philippines and Vietnam accusing China of increasingly aggressive diplomatic tactics to stake its claims.
The Philippines has consistently sought wider help, such as from close ally the United States, in dealing with its more powerful Asian neighbour on the South China Sea issue.
The controversy of "internationalisation" flared again in Phnom Penh this week with the Philippines insisting it should not have to confine its negotiations to just with China.
US President Barack Obama, who arrived in Phnom Penh on Monday night for an 18-nation East Asia Summit, was also expected to raise his concerns over the South China Sea, which would anger the Chinese but embolden the Philippines.
Related posts:
Asean, an arena of superpowers
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