The Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN has released on Monday its first ever unified statement and joint communique on the South China Sea dispute during last day of its meeting in Laos.
In the statement, ASEAN called for the promotion and maintenance of security and peace in the South China Sea.
In cases of disputes, the ASEAN urges nations to resolve it peacefully and according to international law.
“This is a victory for ASEAN for upholding the very principles of international law and the procedures legal and diplomatic processes that justify its existence in so far as building trust and confidence among the members. Promoting cooperation solidarity and upholding the centrality with ASEAN,” foreign affairs secretary Perfecto Yasay said.
The Ten Nation bloc also expressed concern over the land reclamations and escalation of activities in the region.
It also emphasized the need for a freedom of navigation as well as self restraint and non-militarization of activities in the South China Sea.
Despite the assurance provided in the statement, there was no mention of the arbitration ruling and even China.
Yasay also clarified that, during the meeting, he pushed to include in the unified statement the abitration ruling that China has no basis in claiming the West Philippine Sea.
“I push for the inclusion of the arbitral award. Again, this is a diplomatic tact that have to be made. But we knew that there was a middle ground without compromising the rights of the Philippines and the award recognized by the arbitral tribunal.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry expressed satisfaction on the ASEAN’s released communique and defended the unified statement saying it captured all the principles being espoused by the ASEAN.
He also noted that there is no truth to reports that the statement would be irrelevant just because it has no mention of the arbitration ruling.
“I was very satisfied that the comminique clearly referenced all legal rights, all legal decisions process without mentioning the abitration decision. And sometimes, frankly in meeting like that and diplomacy, you don’t always have to include every single word that may, in fact, sometimes make it harder to get to the dialogue that you wanna get to. But every single principle and value of rule of law was embraced in that comminique,” Kerry said.
Kerry also commended what he called as measured response by the Philippines to the arbitration ruling.
He also called on other claimant parties resolve peacefully the dispute and to exercise self-restraint in dealing with the issue. He further urged the countries to diplomatically resolve the issue.
“We are consistently urging parties to negotiate to work this through diplomatically, bilaterally, multilaterally, build up confidence building measures. And we say that we urge negotiation we do so obviously understanding that our friend and ally, the Philippines, can only do so within terms that are acceptable to the government of the Philippines,” Kerry added further.
Yasay meanwhile assures that the Philippines will negotiate with China within the ambit of the international law. He also called on China to do the same.
(DARLENE BASINGAN/UNTV NEWS & RESCUE)
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