Disagreement between the United States and China over how to address rival claims in the South China Sea marred a gathering of Southeast Asian defence officials in Kuala Lumpur today, with a joint statement scrapped after ministers failed to agree on its wording.
The United States and its allies had pressed for a mention of disputes in the South China Sea in the statement while a senior U.S. defence official said China had lobbied members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to avoid any reference.
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It came just a week after a U.S. warship challenged territorial limits around one of China’s man-made islands in the Spratly archipelago with a so-called freedom-of-navigation patrol.
The patrol prompted China’s naval chief to warn his U.S. counterpart that a minor incident could spark war if the United States did not stop its “provocative acts”. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes every year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims.
China objects to what it sees as outside interference in the disputes.
The United States says it takes no position on the claims but it and allies such as the Philippines have been alarmed by increasingly assertive Chinese action including island building on disputed reefs.
Malaysia had planned to release a statement at the end of the two-day forum but a senior U.S. defence official said China had scuppered that.
They “tried to forcefully stuff in content to the joint declaration”, and the responsibility for failing to come up with a joint statement was completely with those countries, the ministry said in a microblog post.
Malaysia had earlier agreed to include a mention of the South China Sea in the statement, said a Philippine official travelling with his minister. The official declined to give details but said the Philippines, which traditionally argues for a stronger stance against China’s territorial ambitions, was satisfied with the reference.
A copy of remarks by Hishammuddin, which appeared to have been issued to media by mistake and then retracted, stated that ASEAN sought a “peaceful resolution to the disputes … collisions in open seas and skies must be avoided at all costs”.
The ministers’ meeting, first held in 2006, is a platform to promote regional peace and stability.
Leaders of the countries attending meet again at ASEAN and East Asia summits this month and Hishammuddin said those talks would give more opportunities to resolve differences.
U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter held a 40-minute meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Chang Wanquan, on Tuesday at which the two discussed the South China Sea, another senior U.S. defence official said.
“The Chinese people and military will not stand for any infringements of China’s sovereignty and relevant interests,” Chang told Carter, the Chinese defence ministry said in a statement.
Carter and his Malaysian counterpart will cruise on the USS Theodore Roosevelt on Thursday, a U.S. defence official said, for a voyage bound to keep tension over the rival claims in the spotlight. There was no information about where the U.S. warship would sail but it has been on patrol in the South China Sea.
The United States and its allies had pressed for a mention of disputes in the South China Sea in the statement while a senior U.S. defence official said China had lobbied members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to avoid any reference.
“The decision was made by ASEAN because there is no consensus, so no joint declaration is signed,” Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told a news conference.The forum included defence ministers from the 10 ASEAN members and counterparts from countries such as the Australia, China, India, Japan and the United States.
It came just a week after a U.S. warship challenged territorial limits around one of China’s man-made islands in the Spratly archipelago with a so-called freedom-of-navigation patrol.
The patrol prompted China’s naval chief to warn his U.S. counterpart that a minor incident could spark war if the United States did not stop its “provocative acts”. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes every year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims.
China objects to what it sees as outside interference in the disputes.
The United States says it takes no position on the claims but it and allies such as the Philippines have been alarmed by increasingly assertive Chinese action including island building on disputed reefs.
Malaysia had planned to release a statement at the end of the two-day forum but a senior U.S. defence official said China had scuppered that.
“The Chinese lobbied to keep any reference to the South China Sea out of the final joint declaration,” said the official who declined to be identified. Understandably a number of ASEAN countries felt that was inappropriate.China’s Defence Ministry, however, blamed “certain countries” outside Southeast Asia, a pointed reference to the United States and Japan.
"It reflects the divide China’s reclamation and militarisation in the South China Sea has caused in the region.
"This was an ASEAN decision but in our view no statement is better than one that avoids the important issue of China’s reclamation and militarisation in the South China Sea," a US official.
They “tried to forcefully stuff in content to the joint declaration”, and the responsibility for failing to come up with a joint statement was completely with those countries, the ministry said in a microblog post.
Malaysia had earlier agreed to include a mention of the South China Sea in the statement, said a Philippine official travelling with his minister. The official declined to give details but said the Philippines, which traditionally argues for a stronger stance against China’s territorial ambitions, was satisfied with the reference.
A copy of remarks by Hishammuddin, which appeared to have been issued to media by mistake and then retracted, stated that ASEAN sought a “peaceful resolution to the disputes … collisions in open seas and skies must be avoided at all costs”.
The ministers’ meeting, first held in 2006, is a platform to promote regional peace and stability.
Leaders of the countries attending meet again at ASEAN and East Asia summits this month and Hishammuddin said those talks would give more opportunities to resolve differences.
U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter held a 40-minute meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Chang Wanquan, on Tuesday at which the two discussed the South China Sea, another senior U.S. defence official said.
“The Chinese people and military will not stand for any infringements of China’s sovereignty and relevant interests,” Chang told Carter, the Chinese defence ministry said in a statement.
Carter and his Malaysian counterpart will cruise on the USS Theodore Roosevelt on Thursday, a U.S. defence official said, for a voyage bound to keep tension over the rival claims in the spotlight. There was no information about where the U.S. warship would sail but it has been on patrol in the South China Sea.