The 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) failed to reach a consensus on a joint statement at the end of their Summit on Friday because they could not reach consensus, according to Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo.
As a result, Laos instead issued a Chairman’s statement which did not directly address the South China Sea issue, he said.
“So we had no real say on the language,” Manalo said.
“There were negotiations on a joint ASEAN statement but no consensus. Hence, Laos issued a statement on its own.”
The ASEAN also did not issue a consensus statement at the end of the 18-nation East Asia Summit because of objections reportedly by China and Russia over the language of the proposed draft on the disputes over the South China Sea.
In a press conference in Vientiane last Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the final declaration had not been adopted because of “persistent attempts by the United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand to turn it into a purely political statement.”
President Marcos had challenged Chinese Premier Li Qiang over recent clashes in the West Philippine Sea at the regional summit.
“You cannot separate economic cooperation from political security,” Mr. Marcos said during the ASEAN-China meeting attended by Li.
The Li summit was largely focused on trade, but Mr. Marcos told his fellow leaders that ASEAN and China cannot pretend that all is well on the economic front when there are tensions on the political front, a Southeast Asian diplomat said.
Mr. Marcos also said that both sides should hasten talks on a code of conduct in the South China Sea.
“Parties must be earnestly open to seriously managing the differences and to reduce tensions. In our view, there should be more urgency in the pace of the negotiations of the ASEAN-China Code of Conduct,” he said.
He also called on his fellow ASEAN leaders to adopt measures that could stop China’s aggressive actions and harassment, noting it was “regrettable” that the overall situation in the WPS “remains tense and unchanged.”
“We continue to be subjected to harassment and intimidation. Such behavior is not unnoticed by our respective publics and the international community as well. That they will require a concerted and urgent effort to adopt measures to prevent their recurrence,” the President said in his intervention during the 27th ASEAN-China Summit.
