ID :
195927
Tue, 07/19/2011 - 19:21
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ASEAN ministers seek early agreement on S. China Sea guidelines+
OANA_NEWS
ASEAN ministers seek early agreement on S. China Sea guidelines+
NUSA DUA, Indonesia, July 19 Kyodo -
Foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations said after talks here Tuesday they expect guidelines to be finalized Wednesday to implement a declaration of conduct among nations with overlapping claims in the South China Sea.
A joint communique adopted at the end of the annual talks said the ministers ''look forward to the finalization of the guidelines'' at a meeting Wednesday morning of senior officials of ASEAN and China, in which they will discuss implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.
ASEAN and China agreed on the declaration in 2002 to ensure the peaceful resolution of disputes in strategic sea lanes, but they have yet to establish a code of conduct that is legally binding.
China has been reluctant to enter into a binding agreement.
Wednesday's meeting of ASEAN and Chinese senior officials will be followed Thursday by a meeting of foreign ministers of the two sides, which is part of a series of ASEAN-organized meetings taking place in the Nusa Dua beach resort on Bali this week.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told a press conference after Tuesday's meeting that although the tension is still high in the South China Sea, it ''is being channeled hopefully to our problem-solving outlook.''
The communique said the ASEAN foreign ministers ''look forward to intensive discussion in ASEAN on a regional Code of Conduct in the South China Sea.''
They have tasked their senior officials to work on its development and submit a progress report to the ASEAN Summit to be held Nov. 17-19 in Bali, it said.
Opening the 44th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono implicitly criticized the prolonged discussions on guidelines to implement the declaration of conduct among countries involved in disputes in the South China Sea.
''Things do not necessarily have to be this slow. I ask the foreign ministers' meetings to step up efforts, to complete that last mile on this important confidence-building document,'' Yudhoyono told the ministers.
''We need to send a strong signal to the world that the future of the South China Sea is a predictable, manageable and optimistic one and we need to finalize those long-overdue guidelines because we need to get moving to the next phase, which is identifying elements of the code of conduct,'' he added.
Philippine senior official Erlinda Basilio said ASEAN will present a new formulation to China, adding, ''We remain hopeful that the Chinese will see it clearly and agree to the ASEAN proposal.''
In a related development, Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told reporters he had suggested to bring the problem of overlapping claims in the South China Sea to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
''We invited China to come with us, but China is hesitant to do that,'' Del Rosario said. ''And since we have to do it alone we have to look at other dispute settlement mechanisms where we can do it by ourselves.''
The South China Sea, which contains some of the world's busiest shipping lanes and is believed to be rich in oil and gas, is claimed in whole or in part by Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
China and Vietnam have long been involved in diplomatic disputes in recent years involving fishing vessels and patrol boats.
Tensions also rose this year between China and the Philippines when two Chinese ships ordered a Philippine survey ship away from an area called Reed Bank, claimed by the Philippines. The Philippines sent in military aircraft and has since protested strongly to China.
China's stance is to deal with each of the claimant countries on a bilateral basis, but some of the claimants see that position as a way for China to impose its will on them and would prefer the claims be discussed and settled multilaterally.
Despite China's objection to other countries intervening in the matter, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may raise the issue during a meeting with her counterparts in the ASEAN Regional Forum on Saturday.
Although the United States takes no official position on the conflicting sovereignty claims in the region, it insists on unfettered access to sea lanes through the South China Sea, she said at last year's meeting.
On Wednesday, foreign ministers from Japan, China and South Korea will join the ASEAN foreign ministers for an ASEAN-plus-three meeting.
On Saturday, the ASEAN foreign ministers will hold the regional security forum that will include the participation by Clinton, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto and North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun.
(Puy Kea and Dario Agnote contributed to this article from Nusa Dua)
==Kyodo
2011-07-20 00:19:19
ASEAN ministers seek early agreement on S. China Sea guidelines+
NUSA DUA, Indonesia, July 19 Kyodo -
Foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations said after talks here Tuesday they expect guidelines to be finalized Wednesday to implement a declaration of conduct among nations with overlapping claims in the South China Sea.
A joint communique adopted at the end of the annual talks said the ministers ''look forward to the finalization of the guidelines'' at a meeting Wednesday morning of senior officials of ASEAN and China, in which they will discuss implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.
ASEAN and China agreed on the declaration in 2002 to ensure the peaceful resolution of disputes in strategic sea lanes, but they have yet to establish a code of conduct that is legally binding.
China has been reluctant to enter into a binding agreement.
Wednesday's meeting of ASEAN and Chinese senior officials will be followed Thursday by a meeting of foreign ministers of the two sides, which is part of a series of ASEAN-organized meetings taking place in the Nusa Dua beach resort on Bali this week.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told a press conference after Tuesday's meeting that although the tension is still high in the South China Sea, it ''is being channeled hopefully to our problem-solving outlook.''
The communique said the ASEAN foreign ministers ''look forward to intensive discussion in ASEAN on a regional Code of Conduct in the South China Sea.''
They have tasked their senior officials to work on its development and submit a progress report to the ASEAN Summit to be held Nov. 17-19 in Bali, it said.
Opening the 44th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono implicitly criticized the prolonged discussions on guidelines to implement the declaration of conduct among countries involved in disputes in the South China Sea.
''Things do not necessarily have to be this slow. I ask the foreign ministers' meetings to step up efforts, to complete that last mile on this important confidence-building document,'' Yudhoyono told the ministers.
''We need to send a strong signal to the world that the future of the South China Sea is a predictable, manageable and optimistic one and we need to finalize those long-overdue guidelines because we need to get moving to the next phase, which is identifying elements of the code of conduct,'' he added.
Philippine senior official Erlinda Basilio said ASEAN will present a new formulation to China, adding, ''We remain hopeful that the Chinese will see it clearly and agree to the ASEAN proposal.''
In a related development, Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told reporters he had suggested to bring the problem of overlapping claims in the South China Sea to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
''We invited China to come with us, but China is hesitant to do that,'' Del Rosario said. ''And since we have to do it alone we have to look at other dispute settlement mechanisms where we can do it by ourselves.''
The South China Sea, which contains some of the world's busiest shipping lanes and is believed to be rich in oil and gas, is claimed in whole or in part by Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
China and Vietnam have long been involved in diplomatic disputes in recent years involving fishing vessels and patrol boats.
Tensions also rose this year between China and the Philippines when two Chinese ships ordered a Philippine survey ship away from an area called Reed Bank, claimed by the Philippines. The Philippines sent in military aircraft and has since protested strongly to China.
China's stance is to deal with each of the claimant countries on a bilateral basis, but some of the claimants see that position as a way for China to impose its will on them and would prefer the claims be discussed and settled multilaterally.
Despite China's objection to other countries intervening in the matter, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may raise the issue during a meeting with her counterparts in the ASEAN Regional Forum on Saturday.
Although the United States takes no official position on the conflicting sovereignty claims in the region, it insists on unfettered access to sea lanes through the South China Sea, she said at last year's meeting.
On Wednesday, foreign ministers from Japan, China and South Korea will join the ASEAN foreign ministers for an ASEAN-plus-three meeting.
On Saturday, the ASEAN foreign ministers will hold the regional security forum that will include the participation by Clinton, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto and North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun.
(Puy Kea and Dario Agnote contributed to this article from Nusa Dua)
==Kyodo
2011-07-20 00:19:19
