Manila slams Asean failure to issue statement

Manila July 15, 2012
Philippine Daily Inquirer

"I think even when we were silent, we were being accused of escalating [things]; when we were responding, we were accused of being the bully. Those are my humble observations."

The Philippines yesterday deplored the non-issuance of a joint statement at the end of the 45th Asean Foreign Ministers Meeting held in Cambodia.

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said the failure to issue a joint statement was unprecedented in Asean's 45-year history.

A joint communique would have included Asean's stand on the territorial disputes of some members of the bloc with China in the South China Sea, referred to as the West Philippine Sea in the Philippines.

Del Rosario said the Philippines took strong exception to the statement made by Cambodia, host of the meeting, that this would be "the first time that Asean is not able to issue the joint communique due to bilateral conflict between some Asean member states and a neighbouring country."

He said he had discussed the situation at Panatag Shoal (also known as Scarborough Shoal) in several meetings in Phnom Penh starting last Monday.

"There was a considerable amount of discussion on Scarborough Shoal in all of the forums that were held there," Del Rosario told reporters. "I think we were successful in being able to bring to the [forums] the challenges that the Philippines faces in that area."

Asked for comment on China's allegation that the Philippines was causing trouble, Del Rosario said: "I think even when we were silent, we were being accused of escalating [things]; when we were responding, we were accused of being the bully. Those are my humble observations."

Cambodia's opposition

Explaining the controversy about the Asean joint statement, Del Rosario said: "We simply wanted the fact that we discussed the issue and it should be reflected in the joint communique, no more, no less. It would have just been a simple sentence or paragraph in the communique. We just want a recognition that the Scarborough Shoal was in fact discussed."

Del Rosario said several Asean states and the Asean secretariat supported the Philippine position that the Scarborough Shoal discussion should be reflected in the joint statement. "However, the chair [Cambodia] has consistently opposed any mention of the Scarborough Shoal at all in the joint communique and today announced that a joint communique 'cannot be issued'."

Del Rosario declined to name the countries that supported the Philippines' position, saying, "I may be putting in jeopardy those countries that I do not name, so I would prefer not to do that.

"The first position the chair took was that he doesn't want to mention bilateral issues," Del Rosario said. "But if you look at many of the issues that we had, all of them have a bilateral aspect to it."

He said it was not true that Asean did not include bilateral matters in joint statements. "The most recent example of this was the problem between Cambodia and Thailand. In every meeting, that was brought up as a matter of discussion with no reservations," Del Rosario said.

The Philippines, Del Rosario said, maintains that since the competing claims in the South China Sea are not mere bilateral conflicts with a northern neighbour but multilateral, these should be resolved multilaterally.

Asked if Cambodia was pressured by China, Del Rosario said: "I don't want to speak for the chair. That question should be answered directly by him. But at one point, he indicated that he had political reasons."

Del Rosario said Asean foreign ministers have already agreed to initiate discussions between Asean and China on the development of the code of conduct," he added.

Del Rosario said the problem that arose during the Phnom Penh meeting should not be seen as the beginning of a split in Asean.