Southeast Asian leaders yesterday pressed their call for self-restraint in the disputed South China Sea and renewed their alarm over the US-China trade dispute, with one leader saying it might spiral out of control.
Long-raging territorial conflicts and the protracted trade dispute are high on the agenda in the final two days of meetings of ASEAN leaders.
Facing regional predicaments, such as the Rohingya refugee crisis in Myanmar, the leaders took the stage in Bangkok and clasped their hands together in a trademark ASEAN handshake to project unity.
Photo: EPA-EFE
This year’s host, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, opened the summit with a call for regional unity and a push for the bloc to conclude a massive free-trade pact with China and five other Asia-Pacific nations to cushion any impact from the US’ trade conflicts with China.
“The winds of protectionism that are battering the multilateral system remind us that we must hang on ever stronger to one another,” Prayuth said.
The US is not included in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which Prayuth said would encompass the world’s largest free-trade region.
Officials from Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam are to be at the G20 summit later this month in Japan, where US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) are expected to meet.
“ASEAN hopes there will be discussions that lead to an easing and resolution of these problems, because they affect many countries,” Prayuth said.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday told other leaders that the trade conflict “is creating uncertainty. It is taking a toll on global growth and it could hinder the ongoing processes of economic integration.”
“The US and China must both take the high road and resolve their differences before the situation spirals out of control,” Duterte said.
In their public communiques, the leaders have avoided naming the US, China or specific nations embroiled in controversial issues in a show of their conservative protocols, but the leaders could raise thorny issues in a closed-door and informal session.
Duterte has said that he would raise the territorial conflicts in the South China Sea following the June 9 ramming of an anchored Philippine boat by a larger Chinese fishing vessel in the disputed Reed Bank (Lile Bank, 禮樂灘).
In a statement outlining their regional policies, the leaders yesterday renewed their call for nations involved in the territorial spats to “exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities and avoid actions that may further complicate the situation, and pursue the peaceful resolution of disputes in accordance with international law.”
Four ASEAN states — the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei — along with Taiwan and China are locked in disputes over the strategic waterway.
ASEAN has been in talks with China to negotiate a nonaggression pact called the “code of conduct” to prevent major armed clashes in the region.
Southeast Asian diplomats have told reporters that the first of three rounds of talks on the proposed pact was expected to be completed this year.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
RELEASED: Ko emerged from a courthouse before about 700 supporters, describing his year in custody as a period of ‘suffering’ and vowed to ‘not surrender’ Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on NT$70 million (US$2.29 million) bail yesterday, bringing an end to his year-long incommunicado detention as he awaits trial on corruption charges. Under the conditions set by the Taipei District Court on Friday, Ko must remain at a registered address, wear a GPS-enabled ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also barred from contacting codefendants or witnesses. After Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), posted bail, Ko was transported from the Taipei Detention Center to the Taipei District Court at 12:20pm, where he was fitted with the tracking
RSS