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| ASEAN countries' Foreign Ministers at the opening of the 45th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, July 9, 2012 (Photo: AP) |
Friday, 13 July 2012
Reporters,VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh and Washington, DC
“Some countries still kept insisting on putting in the Scarborough Shoal issue, which is a bilateral dispute between the Philippines and China.” - Comrade Hor 5 Hong
Asean members on Friday could not agree on a final joint statement at the end of eight days of meetings, underscoring divisions among its members over the South China Sea issue.
“Some” members wanted to include in a statement that Asean had not come to an agreement on that issue, while other members did not want that failure included, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong told reporters on Friday.
“We had agreed on most of the points,” he said. “There were more than 100 points in the joint communique and the only remaining issue was the dispute among some countries in Asean with China in the South China Sea. Therefore, I think we should not have taken the joint communique as a hostage of their bilateral disputes with other country in the region.”
The result was no official joint statement, despite achievements in other areas.
“Some countries still kept insisting on putting in the Scarborough Shoal issue, which is a bilateral dispute between the Philippines and China,” Hor Namhong said in the press briefing. “And some still insisted on putting the dispute between Vietnam and China on an exclusive economic zone and a sea dispute, in the joint communique.”
He called these requests “unacceptable,” and laid the blame for the breakdown on “the whole of Asean.”
Asean members had hoped to put together a code of conduct as a negotiation point with China. The code would govern the behavior of naval vessels in the areas under dispute, but it would not settle the overlapping claims issue at the heart of the issue. By late Thursday, the 10 member states could not come up with agreed-upon language for the code of conduct, especially whether to address Scarborough Shoal, a small atoll surrounded by rich fishing grounds claimed by both China and the Philippines.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told Bloomberg News on Thursday that the “impasse” on the code of conduct was because of Cambodia’s recalcitrance and the “pressure, duplicity, intimidation” of China.
Some analysts have suggested that Cambodia could play a major role in helping solve the decades-long dispute over the South China Sea, which sees overlapping claims by China and Taiwan and Asean members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. The sea contains a number of island chains and undersea oil reserves and is a major waterway for global sea transportation.
However, the breakdown in talks this week shows how divisive the issue can be.
Phat Kosal, a researcher for Asian affairs at the University of Southern California, told “Hello VOA” Thursday, that the issue is unlikely to be resolved under Cambodia’s chairmanship of Asean this year.
Major powers like China and the US are involved in the issue, and Asean has remained divided over it, he said.
Speaking from Cambodia, where she attended meetings among regional leaders, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US would not take sides in the South China Sea issue, but that the US has interests in maintaining stability there. China considers the sea as a core strategic interest as well.
That means Asean members may polarize between the two, Phat Kosal said. Negotiation is made even harder because the dispute itself is older than Asean as a group.
If Asean can’t speak with one voice, “it will be weak as before, which means speaking more than doing,” he said. “Mostly, we can’t put pressure on big superpower countries like China and the US.”
13 comments:
cambodia as a chairman, had spoken on this issue already; i mean, the chairman takes charge, right? end of story! greedy pinoy gov't should talk directly with china about their discontent, asean have already spoken about his issue, why keep on repeating it like a broken record? have some respect for cambodia, ok. it's too bad, the philipines didn't like china due to bias, prejudice and poltical discrimination, etc; just like cambodia don't like vietnam either, but we made agreement together since we are neighbors. why philipines is not listening to the decision of the chairman? the chairman stated that the code of conduct which all agreed was the best, sound solution for now, so why the greedy philipines can't understand that? shame on the philipines for using america and cambodia on their issue with china because the philipines has political bias against china. too bad, really, china will always be china, get used to it, pinoy! have some code of ethics about this issue, really. stop whining at cambodia and america and china, ok! the last i checked, the chairman was in charge, not the philipines, you know. one community, one destiny is it, stop whining, ok! if philipines lose sleep over this, i suggest philipince seek mental health profession's intervention, ok. stop bothering cambodia, cambodia will only play by the code of conduct and rules and regulations, nothing personal, ok.
one or two "breakdowns" is like one or two lost votes out of 10 or 14, so it doesn't matter, two votes against 14 votes. the concensus is still on, really. it is expected that one or two will vote against anyway, so, that's normal expectation, you know. i still say cambodia as a chairperson did a great job overall, really.
This ASEAN meeting has caused a dilemma for the Cambodian government.
As a Khmer, who has always worried about the regional expansionist Vietnam, I believe the government has made the right decision concerning the south China sea issue.
Some ASEAN members such as the Philippine, and Indonesia have blatantly deplored Cambodia, but they did not know the real Cambodia's problems posed by Vietnam.
As a whole, Cambodia has made the right decision for Cambodia security and interest.
HO NAM HONG PARLE DE N'IMPORTE QUOI.HO NAM HONG= DIRECTEUR DE PRISON BOEUNG TROR BEAK DURANT LE RÉGIME DE POL POT DONC IL EST VIÉTMING AUJOURD'HUI AUSSI LE RÉGIME HUN SEN =DICTATEUR . HUN SEN PREND SON PEUPLE COMME L'ENNEMI. IL LE FAIT SAIGNÉ SON PROPRE PEUPLE SOUVENT POUR YOUN HANOI EXEMPLE LE 11 .07 .2012 MR RONG PANHA, ET LE PASSÉ CHÉAR VICHÉAR ,LE K5 ,COUP D'ÉTAT C'EST UN GOUVERNEMENT SANGUINAIRE.
1:34 PM
You think Cambodia made the right decision by not siding with ASEAN? Do you think they will come to your rescue if Youns invade us or take our land? Oh yeah, China will protect us? For how long? China is an island for itself, it is against everybody already.
Cambodia should not have accepted the Chair in the first place, knowing the storm was coming.
It is khmer misplaced and downright stupid pride.
shut up, ok. the chairmanship is mandatory if you are a member of the asean group, really. there's no choice! and don't use the word taking side on this issue because that's not th job of the chairman, ok! i praised cambodia did the right thing for not just the best interest of asean but of cambodia, china, the US, etc as well, really. no taking side is allowed or your become biased, prejudice, discriminatory like i always say, really. when you have a code of conduct, it's a rule and regulation, you cannot take side or become bias, prejudice and discriminatory on such issue. the chairman has spoken, really. like and rule of conduct anywhere, of course, some people may not like it, but they learn to agree and live with it unless the law changes or amended, ok. i think the world, even, nowadays operates more and more toward the use of the rule of law because it's preferrable by all, and because this is not the dark ages era anymore, you know. get used to it, if it's new to you, ok!
and play by the rule of law and code of conduct or code of ethical conduct, you never go wrong, ok! by the way, i wonder, does asean have a code of ethical conduct in its organization? if not, there should be one so members can't violate the rules and regulationor the rule of law, etc, really! i think every organization, even NGOs, etc must have a code of ethical conduct rules and regulation to it to be keep profession and not personal, you know. think about it, why rules and regulations? of course, it may sound stupid, but it is very necessary to have rules and regulations, really! even streets have rules and regulations, called traffic lights and stop signs, ok! think about it!
Shut up, stupid Khmer. China will fuck you up later when you can't be used anymore.
Your smarter pinoy
We know Khmer is dumbest in ASEAN, their balls are their brain and it is just too small.
From Philippines
tone down your heavy english "d" accent, pinoy. i can't understand you, ok! you want me to speak to you? i bet you can't even understand khmer, really!
Khmers are famous over the world for their small brain and balls. Beggars and maids are their famous job positions.
Smarter pinoy
whatever! you don't understand what is cultural differences, really! look up the words bias, prejudice and discrimination, and start using the code of ethical conduct, ok!
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