Wednesday, 11 July 2012
Phnom Penh Post & AFP 
ASEAN
secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan (centre) takes part in an ASEAN
meeting yesterday at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh. Photograph: Hong
Menea/Phnom Penh Post
A UN maritime convention that puts
limits on claims in disputes over territorial waters should be the basis
for negotiations over the South China Sea, ASEAN foreign ministers
agreed in a draft document signed yesterday.
China is locked in a
dispute over the South China Sea with several countries attending this
week’s ASEAN Regional Forum in Phnom Penh, but has nevertheless yielded
influence in drafting an ASEAN Code of Conduct on the issue.
The burgeoning superpower is unlikely to be thrilled by moves to make the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea
the basis of negotiations, which it is a signatory to but which would
likely conflict with its claim to almost all of the disputed waters.
“UNCLOS
has been there all along, even in the declaration back in 2002 here.
UNCLOS is one of the pillars of international negotiations,
international relations,” outgoing ASEAN Secretary-General Surin
Pitsuwan said on the sidelines of the forum yesterday.
Pitsuwan
said in formulating the COC, ASEAN was taking norms adopted from the
outside world and transferring them to the regional context.
“We
are not inventing the wheel, but at the same time, by putting them
together as our own body of rules and regulations and norms, we are
making it, I think, more credible and more legitimate,” he said.
Taiwan and ASEAN members the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia all make rival claims on areas of the sea.
Cambodia
has traditionally supported China’s claim over the waters, but
government officials were tight-lipped about the issue yesterday.
“You
only focus on the South China Sea. Why don’t you focus also on the
co-operation? On the many important issues?” Foreign Affairs secretary
of state Seung Rathchavy asked reporters.
When quizzed about the
South China Sea after giving a vague and rapid press briefing, Foreign
Ministry secretary of state Kao Kim Hourn gave a brusque answer and
abruptly marched out of a press briefing.
“Very briefly, one of
the ministers just touched on the need to . . . work toward the COC.
That’s all that was talked about, very briefly,” he said before leaving.
He promptly returned after realising he had left without giving the Khmer-language version of the briefing.
With assistance from David Boyle
1 comment:
Yes how about our sea and koh tral. How come only yuon that took it did not put on the table!!!!!
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