ASEAN does not issue joint statement on East Sea ruling

ASEAN decided not to issue a joint statement on the ruling of the Arbitral Tribunal rejecting China's self-drawn "nine-dash line" claim in the East Sea.

ASEAN foreign ministers attend a special meeting with China in Kunming in June. Photo: AFP.

Kyodo today leadsThe Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has decided not to issue any joint statement on the July 12 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which rejected China’s unreasonable sovereignty claims over most of the South China Sea, a source from the bloc said.

The 10 ASEAN member countries were informed by Laos, the rotating chair of 2016, on the night of July 13 that the association would not issue a joint statement due to lack of consensus.

"We have given up on issuing an ASEAN statement. The ASEAN chairman informed us of the decision as we could not reach a consensus," the source said.

The source confirmed that ASEAN member countries have discussed the possibility of issuing a joint statement after the Arbitral Tribunal announces its ruling on the Philippines' lawsuit, but declined to disclose details of which countries objected to the joint statement.Cambodia, which has close ties with China, has previously publicly opposed such a move.

According to Kyodo, ASEAN has recently had difficulty finding a consensus in issuing a joint statement on the East Sea, because some member countries are afraid of affecting relations with Beijing, which is providing them with large financial aid for infrastructure development.

According to VNE