By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, Nov. 23: The 2015 edition of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) concluded yesterday (Nov.18-22) at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with security issues, particularly the South China sea dispute and global terrorism taking up the majority of the agenda space.
The South China Sea dispute involving multiple nations had intensified following the militarization of the islands by most of the nations and more visibly by the leading claimant China. On Sunday China in a defiant push vowed to continue developing its presence both militarily as well as facilities for civilian operations such as fishing and commercial shipping.
“Building and maintaining necessary military facilities, this is what is required for China’s national defense and for the protection of those islands and reefs, and to expand and upgrade (the civilian facilities) to better serve commercial ships, fishermen, to help distressed vessels and provide more public services” China’s Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said.
A number of nations and chiefly the United States raised concerns over China’s militarization of the area diplomatically on various platforms and also more provocatively making unannounced visits in the disputed areas the last few weeks. A US B-22 Bomber aircraft and the USS Lassen, a guided missile destroyer ship made short and testy trips near the areas in the South China Sea territories claimed by China.
US President Barack Obama on Saturday stressed that the claimant nations should cease building military facilities in the area and seek to resolve it peacefully. “For the sake of regional stability the claimants should halt reclamation, construction and militarization of disputed areas,” Obama said.
Similar sentiments were echoed across the participating national leaders. Philippine President Benigno Aquino at the summit’s plenary session said, “We believe that, as a rules-based community, ASEAN should not allow any country, no matter how powerful, to claim an entire sea as its own and to use force or the threat thereof in asserting such a claim,”
The South China Sea dispute is spread over a large chunk of the South Asian peninsula encompassing Spratly, Paracel, Natuna islands and the Gulf of Tonkin. The area is a wealth of fishing spots, strategic shipping lanes and suspected locations for large amount of natural gas and crude oil. China estimates that the South China Sea may contain 17.7 billion tons of crude oil, more than Kuwait which has 13 billion tons.
The issue of global terrorism also gathered an alliance or at least consensus among the majority of the participants, with united efforts and cooperation the key words in that uniformity. “There was a sense that we have to do more, we have to stay together, we have to act together and we have to redouble our efforts to make sure that we can stamp out violent extremism, and in particular the kind of terror that has been unleashed by I-S in many parts of the world,” Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said.
