The reason Cambodia blocked ASEAN from issuing a statement on the South China Sea ruling.

Cambodia says it advised ASEAN to avoid using language that could escalate tensions between China and the Philippines in last weekend's joint statement.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhon attends a conference in Laos on July 26. Photo: Reuters.

At the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Laos last weekend, ASEAN issued a joint statement but did not mention the ruling.July 12thof the Arbitration Tribunal on the "nine-dash line". Cambodia, a country with very close ties to China, reportedly objected to the inclusion of this content in the communiqué, according toReuters.

Phnom Penh has advised ASEAN ministers not to use language that "escalates tensions between China and the Philippines," Cambodian Foreign Ministry spokesman Chum Sounry said yesterday.

He said the lawsuit was a matter between the Philippines and China, not between ASEAN and China. "Therefore, ASEAN countries, or specifically Cambodia, should not be dragged into it," he added, describing Cambodia's position at the meeting.

ASEAN needs to maintain its neutrality by not touching on this issue, he said.Soundry.

Responding to suggestions that China had "bought" Cambodia's support with a $600 million soft loan a week before the conference, Sounry said the accusation was "an insult."

The Philippines said yesterday that it had "strongly pushed" to include the "nine-dash line" ruling in the conference's joint statement, but rejected claims that the ASEAN final statement's omission of the ruling was a diplomatic victory for China.

While the ASEAN joint statement did not directly mention China or the "nine-dash line" ruling, it expressed concern about developments in the South China Sea. The statement also called on all parties to respect legal and diplomatic processes, in accordance with widely recognized principles of international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

China has overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea with ASEAN countries including the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei. For many years, China has maintained the position of resolving disputes bilaterally and has firmly refused to participate in the Philippines' lawsuit.

On July 12, the Arbitration Tribunal concluded that China has no legal basis to claim historical rights to the resources within its unilaterally drawn "nine-dash line" claim, which covers most of the South China Sea.

According to VNE