President Barack Obama (center) speaks at the plenary session meeting of ASEAN, the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations, at the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands in California
President Barack Obama and leaders of Southeast Asian nations are wrapping up a two-day summit conceived to show U.S. seriousness about staying engaged and keeping a high profile in a region where a rising China has rattled American allies.
Obama and the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will spend today [Macau time] discussing regional security issues. They include counterterrorism and China’s bold territorial claims to disputed waters of the South China Sea, moves that have sounded international alarms and heightened tensions with some association members.
The U.S. maintains these disputes should be resolved peacefully according to international law, a stance Obama emphasized yesterday in welcoming leaders of ASEAN’s 10-nation bloc: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.
“Here at this summit, we can advance our shared vision of a regional order where international rules and norms, including freedom of navigation, are upheld and where disputes are resolved through peaceful, legal means,” Obama said, opening the first ASEAN-only summit held in the U.S.
Obama was closing the summit with a news conference before returning to Washington.
China says it has a historical right to virtually all of the South China Sea and has built seven artificial islands, including with airstrips, to assert its sovereignty. Taiwan and ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines also claim land features in these potentially resource-rich international shipping lanes.
Though not a claimant, the U.S. has spoken out against China’s conduct and has angered Beijing by sailing Navy ships near some of the artificial islands in a show of support for its allies. The U.S. has argued for the maritime rights issue to be resolved peacefully and is looking for ASEAN to take a unified stance and call for the disputes to be resolved based on international law. But unity could be hard to come by; ASEAN has avoided criticizing China by name in joint statements issued at past summits.
The diverse group of countries includes governments aligned either with Washington or Beijing. Only four of its members are embroiled in disputes with China and Taiwan, leading to sometimes conflicting views on how to handle long-simmering rifts.
Summit statements in recent years have expressed concern over the escalating conflicts and called for freedom of navigation and overflight in the disputed territories, but they have rarely gone to specifics.
The Philippines brought its territorial conflicts with China to international arbitration in early 2013 after Beijing refused to withdraw its ships from a disputed shoal under a U.S.-brokered deal. China has refused to participate, but an arbitration tribunal based in The Hague heard the case and is expected to rule this year.
Susan Rice, Obama’s national security adviser, said that negotiations were continuing on a potential joint statement that would cover various topics and not focus primarily on the South China Sea. AP
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