JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — In conversations with leaders from Southeast Asia On Wednesday in the Indonesian capital, Chinese Premier Li Qiang stressed his country’s importance as the world’s second largest economy and the region’s largest trading partner.
Responding to renewed alarm over Beijing’s aggression in the disputed South China Sea, Li cited China’s long history of friendship with Southeast Asia, including joint efforts to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and how both sides have resolved their differences through dialogue.
“As long as we stay on the right track, no matter what storm may arise, China-ASEAN cooperation will be as firm as ever and will go forward against all odds,” Li told his counterparts at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. , made up of 10 nations. “We have preserved peace and tranquility in East Asia in a world plagued by turmoil and change.”
In a separate meeting with ASEAN leaders, US Vice President Kamala Harris cited the strategic importance of US security and relations with Southeast Asia to both sides. Her keynote address before their closed-door summit did not include any of the usual strident US criticism of China’s aggressive actions in the region.
Rival claimant states in the South China Sea belonging to ASEAN nations have protested China’s aggressive moves to strengthen its vast territorial claims in the strategic sea passage. TO The new Chinese map sparked a wave of protests from the leaders of other countries, who say it shows Beijing’s broad claims encroaching on its coastal waters.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has expressed alarm at the recent combativeness in the disputed waters. In early August, a A Chinese coast guard ship used a water cannon to attempt to blockad a Philippine Navy operated ship carrying supplies to Philippine forces at the disputed Second Thomas Shoal.
“We do not seek conflict, but it is our duty as citizens and as leaders to always be ready to face any challenge to our sovereignty, our sovereign rights and our maritime jurisdictions in the South China Sea,” Marcos told his fellow leaders. at a conference. Exclusive ASEAN meeting on Tuesday.
A copy of Marcos’ comments during the hour-long ASEAN meeting with Qiang on Wednesday given to reporters showed the Philippine president launched a veiled criticism but did not mention any specific aggression in the disputed sea.
The Philippines “continues to uphold the primacy of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as the framework within which all activities in the seas and oceans are conducted,” Marcos told the meeting. “Once again we reaffirm our commitment to the rule of law and the peaceful resolution of disputes.”
In 2016, an arbitration court in The Hague, Netherlands, created under that United Nations convention, ruled that China’s vast territorial claims in the South China Sea based on historical grounds have no legal basis.
China, a full dialogue partner of ASEAN, did not participate in the arbitration requested in 2013 by the Philippines, rejected the 2016 ruling and continues to challenge it.
China, Taiwan and some ASEAN member states (Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam) have been trapped for decades in a increasingly tense territorial confrontation in the South China Sea, through which most of the world’s trade transits.
It has also become a delicate front line in the US-China rivalry.
Washington does not claim any rights to the coastal region, but has deployed its warships and combatants to undertake what it says is freedom of navigation and overflight patrols. China has warned the United States not to meddle in what it sees as a purely Asian dispute.
The South China Sea conflicts do not directly include the rest of ASEAN: Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Myanmar. Questions have been raised about why the regional bloc, and its current leader Indonesia, did not issue any expressions of alarm over the actions of the Chinese coast guard, which were strongly opposed by the United States and other Western and Asian nations.
Marty Natalegawa, a respected former Indonesian foreign minister, called the failure of ASEAN to condemn China’s aggressive acts “a deafening silence.”
Aside from long-simmering land conflicts, the Jakarta summit talks focused on the long-running civil conflict in Myanmar, which has put ASEAN to the test and caused divisions among member states over how to effectively solve the crisis.
An evaluation of a five-point ASEAN peace plan showed that it has not made any significant progress since it was presented two years ago. The plan calls for an immediate end to the deadly hostilities and a dialogue between the contending parties, including that of Aung San Suu Kyi and other democratically elected officials who were ousted by the army in an internationally condemned takeover that sparked civil conflict.
Despite the failure of the plan so far, ASEAN leaders decided to stick with it and continue to ban Myanmar generals and their designated officials from attending the bloc’s high-level summit meetings, including the ongoing talks in Jakarta, according to a statement. of ASEAN.
Harris told regional bloc leaders that the United States “will continue to press the regime to end the horrific violence, release all those wrongfully detained, and restore Myanmar’s inclusive democracy.”
He added that Washington will continue to support the ASEAN peace plan for Myanmar.
Myanmar’s security forces have killed some 4,000 civilians and arrested 24,410 others since the army’s takeover, according to the rights watchdog organization Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners.
___
Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini contributed to this report.
Discover more from PressNewsAgency
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.