AUGUST 5 (Reuters) — Security was increased on Wednesday (August 5) morning, ahead of a regional meeting attended by foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Malaysia is the 2015 rotating chair for ASEAN, the regional bloc of 600 million people.
Key issues relating to the region are expected to be discussed, including the disputed South China Sea, though the issue was not on the official agenda. However, expectations were high that it would be discussed against a backdrop of increasing tensions and overlapping claims in the potentially energy-rich South China Sea.
The United States, worried about China’s increasing assertiveness in the region, is expected to repeat a call for Beijing to halt land reclamation on islands in disputed waters.
Neither the United States nor China are members of ASEAN but have been invited to participate alongside other countries outside the group. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will be in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday and Thursday (August 6).
Malaysia said it would not back down on raising the issue which was “extensively” discussed among the ASEAN Foreign Ministers on Tuesday (August 4).
A draft of the joint statement to be issued at the end of the ASEAN meeting, seen by Reuters, said leaders were concerned with recent developments “which have the potential to undermine peace, security and stability in the South China Sea.”
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year, and rejects the rival claims of Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan.
