Saturday, Dec 01, 2012
SINGAPORE - It is calumnious to state that Cambodia, as Chair
of Asean, blocked the issuance of the joint communique of the 45th Asean
Ministerial Meeting in July ("China plays its Asean game"; Nov 19).
In the joint communique, there were four paragraphs on the South
China Sea, on three of which the Asean ministers had reached consensus.
The sole disagreement among the ministers was in paragraph 16 of the
draft joint communique, because of the demand of two Asean members to
include their demands on the South China Sea.
It has been Asean's established practice that any paragraph, sentence
or phrase on which there is no consensus should be removed from the
main document, instead of throwing out the main document, such as the
joint communique.
The two Asean member states warned that if paragraph 16 did not
include what they wanted, there would be no joint communique even though
the Chair had prepared and submitted a revised paragraph 16 with
written explanation, in order to have four paragraphs on the South China
Sea acceptable to all parties.
The argument that "China had managed to game the system in Asean, by
using a proxy in the form of Cambodia" insults Cambodia. Would the
writer describe his own country in the same way?
The notion that "China's cultivation of Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar
could in the long run undermine Asean unity and cohesion" could be
applied to other Asean members as well, when it comes to the cultivation
of ties and building long-term relationships between major powers and
Asean.
Finally, the article's attempts to label Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar
as China's proxies in discussing the "great power competition in Asean's
backyard" is politically incorrect. This "China proxy theory" could be
applied to other countries as well.
It should be noted that Asean has always tried to play a central role between and among big powers in the region.
Sin Serey (Mrs)
Ambassador
Royal Embassy of Cambodia, Singapore
10 comments:
I would like to know, If thai attacking Cambodia. How many country out off 8 will behind Cambodia?
I agreed with the first comment completely. Although we must give Indonesia credits for trying hard to diffuse the escalation. ONLY China, some Eastern European allies provided Cambodia military aides in time of needed. Beginning of Khmer-Siam conflict, Cambodia military was very under equipped and now we are much better, thanks to Chinese assistance loans. None of these ASEAN countries dared to help us out because Thai was a very close U.S ally. U.S supported the Thai behind the scences but we Khmers kicked these Siam in their mouth all bloodied. Now after we were able to hold off Siam and gained temporary peace these ASEAN wanted us to betray our friends. Cambodia is doing it right for her best interests NOT ASEAN interests. Every nation on Earth has the right to look out for her own interests first before all else.
If the two comments above is true, then Cambodia don`t need to part of ASEAN. Just be team west or north of the continent. You think by joining a bloc you can just shunned members away?
9:18 AM, if you are in a team you need to be a team player. If you join a political party you need to abide by the party's by-law and support its members at all cost. In saying this I mean Cambodia is a member of Asean, like a member of the team or a political party, so Cambodia needs to be on Asean side, otherwise Cambodia cannot be part of Asean any more. Just look at NATO, the members support each other at any cost.
To 9:18 AM two questions:
1. Where were ASEAN countries when Vietnam forced Cambodia to cede her island Koh Tral, Vietnam intruded deep Cambodi's territories ?
2. Where were ASEAN countries when the Thai attacked Cambodia along the border areas ? Every nation on Earth has the rights to look out for her own best interest first before all else ?
Agree with the above.
F u Cpp thugs Yuons slave.....Cpp will sell Cambodia to Yuon in the future anyway....Goodbye canbodge.....welcome Indochina Yuon Lao Khmer.....If you fight you'll win,or have a chance to win ..... If you don't say goodbye...
Luv canbodge
12:06 PM, Hun Sen ceded Koh Tral long before (in 1979) Cambodia became Asean member and Hun Sen was the one who ceded the island, so how can they help? For Asean to help, the prime minister or the government must first make a complaint to them first. But if the prime minister was the one who ceded the land, they can intervene because it would mean interfering in Cambodia's sovereignty.
About Preah Vihear, Indonesia tried to help but Hun Sen changed his position many times, sometimes he said Indonesia can help and sometimes he said Indonesia doesn't need to help because he want to negotiate bilaterally with Thailand. So everything is Hun Sen's fault.
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