(Reuters) — Disagreement between the United States and China over how to address rival claims in the South China Sea marred a gathering of Southeast Asian defence officials on Wednesday (November 4), with a joint statement scrapped after ministers failed to agree on its wording.
Malaysian Minister of Defence Hishammuddin Hussein said during a news conference that a consensus had not been reached.
“We couldn’t reach a consensus on the joint declaration and instead of the JD (Joint Declaration) I’ve issued out a chairman statement which is a normal practice in ADMM (ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting) with regards to the chairman statement, we could not get the consensus on the JD so that was not actually done today,” he said.
Differences over the South China Sea have surfaced during the meeting of defence ministers from the 10 ASEAN members and counterparts from countries such as Australia, China, India, Japan and the United States.
The United States and its allies had pressed for a mention of disputes in the South China Sea in the statement while a senior U.S. defence official said China had lobbied members of ASEAN to avoid any reference.
The meeting came just a week after a U.S. warship challenged territorial limits around one of China’s man-made islands in the Spratly archipelago with a so-called freedom-of-navigation patrol.
The patrol prompted China’s naval chief to warn his U.S. counterpart that a minor incident could spark war if the United States did not stop its “provocative acts”.
Hishammuddin meanwhile defended the ASEAN’s value.
“ASEAN centrality is still in the position to be defended. The fact that ASEAN decided that we will not sign the joint declaration if there is no consensus amongst the Plus and the ASEAN members, then we don’t, and I think that’s okay,” he said.
“We have other channels for us to discuss these other issues – at the level of the foreign ministers, at the level of the highest leadership at the summit in a couple of weeks time. So, to me as chairman, I’m relieved that we have ensured the centrality of ASEAN, the decision is made by the ASEAN defence ministers, nothing special about the JD not reaching a consensus and not signed. I want to move ahead, I want to look forward, and I will be monitoring the meetings of the foreign ministers and the heads of their countries of ASEAN in the following weeks to come,” he added.
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes every year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims.
China objects to what it sees as outside interference in the disputes.
The United States says it takes no position on the claims but it and allies such as the Philippines have been alarmed by increasingly assertive Chinese action including island building on disputed reefs.
Conference host Malaysia had planned to release a statement at the end of the two-day forum but a senior U.S. defence official said China had scuppered that.
Carter and his Malaysian counterpart will cruise on the USS Theodore Roosevelt on Thursday (November 5), a U.S. defence official said, for a voyage bound to keep tension over the rival claims in the spotlight.
There was no information about where the U.S. warship would sail but it has been on patrol in the South China Sea.
