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| Cambodia’s Defence Minister Tea Banh (left) and his Singaporean counterpart Ng Eng Hen walk past an honour guard yesterday prior to a meeting in Phnom Penh. Photo by Pha Lina |
Thursday, 19 April 2012
Vong Sokheng
The Phnom Penh Post
Following a closed-door meeting, the defence ministers of Cambodia and Singapore announced yesterday that the controversial South China Sea dispute would not be placed on the agenda at next week’s ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting.
Speaking to reporters after the session with his Singaporean counterpart, Cambodian Defence Minister Tea Banh recognised the importance of resolving the prickly dispute, describing it as a “key issue”, but said that it would not be a topic of discussion at the defence leaders’ summit, which begins next Tuesday in Siem Reap.
“The defence ministers of ASEAN have no obligation to raise [the issue] for discussion,” Tea Banh said.
Singaporean Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen looked to other nations to take primary responsibility for resolving the dispute, which he said was “complex” and required “patience”.
“Cambodia and Singapore are non-claimant states, and I think that the other stakeholders will be able to move this issue forward,” Ng Eng Hen said.
The long-standing maritime row among China, Taiwan and ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam featured prominently at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting earlier this month, when Philippines Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said the dispute was “unacceptable”.
In a statement released during the meeting, he urged ASEAN to agree on a code of conduct for the sea before approaching China to negotiate.
The Philippine Embassy stood by del Rosario’s statement yesterday, but did not provide further detail about next week’s Defence Ministers’ Meeting.
12 comments:
i love my country cambodia. may god bless cambodia and all our beautiful khmer people and citizens.
please learn to read and write and speak our khmer language just like we would learn english, etc as a second language. got to love cambodia, ok!
khmer is our national language; we, khmers, should be proud and have pride in speaking it, be literate about it and so forth, really. stop being shy or timid when speaking and talking and communicating in our khmer language, ok, everybody! be brave and intelligent about it all when it comes to our khmer language. god bless cambodia and us all.
MONEY FROM AH CHINA IS KEEPING THIS MOTHERFUCKER AH RONTAS BANH MOUTH SHUT ABOUT SOUTH CHINA SEA
The South China Seas issue must be resolved bilaterally by China and claimant countries to keep peace and harmony in Asia and among Asians.
Kanduoy Mer Vear Tear Ter banh !!
Kanduoy Mer Vear Tear Ter banh !!
KANDOUY OV AH RONTASS AH TEA KE BANH YO AH LIGHTNING STRIKE SOON
It's a good lesson for Khmer to learn from this issue. Now you have a chance to just seat back, relax, and enjoy the ride.
AH SAMRAE BANH TEA ..............
Khmer tea banh ah Samrae !
why was he ah samrae then? because the past class group kept many khmer people that way. no wonder cambodia went the direction it did because of unequality in education, etc. talk about outdated people, you know. i hope the future cambodia will give everyone of khmer people the equal opportunity to be all they can be, you know. may god bless my country cambodia and all our khmer people and citizens.
i think samrae is better than stupidity. that was the product of inequality of the past gov't. so, stop being selfish, greed and evil, ok!
Yi eur !.....Ah Banh kdet mer vea !
Why didn't stupid tea banh walk on the red carpet? Did he feel low around this singaporian man?
singapore has one of the best healthcare system in asia. i hope cambodia can learn from singapore in this field and singapore can educate and help make a real difference in cambodia for all to enjoy. god bless cambodia.
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