ASEAN fails to reach common voice on East Sea

For the first time in ASEAN's 45-year history, the ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting failed to issue a joint communique until its closing session on July 13 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Although they shook hands firmly, they had no common voice.Photo: Reuters

The reason revolved around the content of issues related to the East Sea, which the Chairman of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting said was "due to bilateral disagreements between some ASEAN member countries and a neighboring country". However, the Philippines, one of the parties with sovereignty claims in the East Sea, expressed strong opposition to this reason and expressed regret that the conference could not issue a joint statement.

SidePhilippineswish to resolve the shoal disputeScarboroughbetween this country and China was included in that joint communiqué.

In the special session this morning, July 13, on the content of the document, some other member countries also supported this. However, the conference chairman, Cambodia, firmly refused to mention the above issue and declared that it could not issue a joint statement.

An anonymous senior Vietnamese diplomatMaletold Tuoi Tre that there were about 19-20 drafts of the joint communique that were put up for discussion. However, problems related to the East Sea prevented those drafts from going any further, even though the content of the communique mentioned many different issues in ASEAN, not just the East Sea.

Indonesia, a country with no claims in the South China Sea, also actively pushed for consensus until the last minute. “The theme of these meetings is One Community, One Destiny. That is not our slogan (Indonesia- PV) put forward by the host country", he told reporters after the special session ended this morning.

According to Tuoitre-M