Reuters: ASEAN deadlocked on South China Sea, Cambodia blocks statement
Southeast Asian nations failed to agree on maritime disputes in the South China Sea on Sunday after Cambodia blocked any mention to an international court ruling against Beijing in their statement, diplomats said.
Foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met for the first time since the U.N.-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration handed an emphatic legal victory to the Philippines in the dispute this month.
The ruling by the court in The Hague denied China's sweeping claims in the strategic seaway, through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes each year.
China claims most of the sea, but ASEAN members the Philippines, Vietnam, Mal
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WNU Editor: I have to wonder if the U.S. is sending the wrong message to its Asian allies by pursuing this .... US Military Pushes for Closer Ties With Chinese Military (VOA).
1 comment:
WNU Editor,
The "issue" for ASEAN, is that unlike NATO, they don't share an Economic Block like the EU.
As a result, nobody's willing to give up their claims and counterclaims, or legitimize any claim resolution method, out of fear of losing economically on their claims.
Instead of setting up the TPP as a "surround China" trade deal that binds the members economically to trade with the US, by selling off the Farm, Fisheries, the few remaining Factories and the Service Industries,
Bush/Obama, strategically would have been better off trying to use the TPP to be an Asian EU.
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