ASEAN leaders call for restraint over S. China Sea spats

They urge early conclusion of code of conduct to handle disputes
By Robin Chan Assistant Political Editor In Naypyidaw, The Straits Times, 12 May 2014

ASEAN leaders yesterday pledged to strengthen unity and solidarity, and called on all parties to refrain from taking actions that would further escalate tensions in the South China Sea, following a week when disputes there threatened to test the cohesiveness of the 10-member grouping.

The pledge was in a declaration issued at the end of the grouping's 24th summit, at which recent incidents between China and Vietnam, and China and the Philippines, threatened to overshadow the feel-good factor of Myanmar's first ever chairmanship of ASEAN.

The leaders also reiterated a call to work towards an early conclusion of a code of conduct to manage disputes in the resource-rich waters without the use of force.

But even as they did so, China sent fighter jets to join the group of vessels tasked with guarding the oil rig HD 981 at the centre of a recent collision between its ships and Vietnam's.

Speaking at the ASEAN leaders' retreat yesterday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the recent incidents were a wake-up call and made clear the urgent need for a code of conduct to be completed. He called on ASEAN leaders to provide strong political support for the challenging process of negotiating the code, saying it was needed "to prevent future mishaps".

Besides the flare-up between China and Vietnam, the Philippines has also detained crewmen of a Chinese fishing boat near the disputed Spratly islands.

Mr Lee said "such incidents could easily spiral out of control, trigger unintended consequences and undermine confidence in our region".

He also underlined the need for ASEAN to stay united in an uncertain global environment, and said that despite different strategic perspectives, the ASEAN 10 share fundamental interests, as set out in the 1967 Bangkok Declaration, the association's founding document.

A united ASEAN is critical for member states to manage regional uncertainties that could overwhelm them individually, to moderate the frictions in relations between major powers, and promote an open, inclusive and transparent regional architecture, he said.

"Conversely, a divided ASEAN undermines our credibility, and relevance to the world," he added.

Mr Lee's call for unity came a day after ASEAN foreign ministers issued a statement expressing serious concerns over incidents in the South China Sea in the days leading up to the summit.

It was a statement which ASEAN Secretary-General Le Luong Minh said would test the intentions of China on concluding a code of conduct, and which he hoped would send a message to China about the need for peace and stability in the region.

China responded to the statement late on Saturday night. It said the South China Sea issue was not a problem between China and ASEAN but a problem of "one or two countries' attempts to use the South Sea issue to harm the overall friendship and cooperation between China and ASEAN".

Speaking to Singapore reporters yesterday, Mr Lee said that was consistent with China's position that the disputes were bilateral issues.

While ASEAN does not take a view on the merits of the individual claims, Mr Lee said it had to take a view on the overall issue "because it is happening on our doorstep, and we must have a view because the security and stability of the region depend on what happens in the South China Sea...

"That is why the ASEAN (foreign) ministers put out a statement, and that is Singapore's consistent, long-held and long-expressed position also."

S'pore banks have 'good propositions' for Myanmar: PM
By Robin Chan Assistant Political Editor In Naypyidaw, The Straits Times, 12 May 2014

AS MYANMAR continues its reforms and develops its financial sector, it should consider the benefits of letting Singapore banks operate there, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Singapore banks will have "good propositions" to offer, he told reporters after the 24th ASEAN summit and a bilateral meeting with Myanmar President Thein Sein. "Myanmar is going to be developing their financial sector, and they will have to continue issuing licences to foreign banks... The Singapore banks will be in the queue. And we hope they will be considered seriously."

Mr Lee also hopes Singapore's investments in and trade with Myanmar will grow over time, and that the two countries can continue to work together.

With foreign investor interest growing since Myanmar opened up, Singapore has signed a memorandum to run a vocational training institute to help build up for its economic zones a pool of skilled workers, which it needs in "huge numbers", Mr Lee said.

Earlier at a plenary session with ASEAN leaders, Mr Lee called for a redoubling of efforts to integrate the grouping's 10 economies and accelerate community building. He urged leaders to find the political will to tackle the remaining issues as ASEAN bids to launch its economic community by 2015.

With more than 70 per cent of the targets achieved, he said the "remaining issues are difficult and sensitive, but offer most benefits for our peoples and businesses".

These include trade in services, trade facilitation, and the removal of non-tariff barriers.

Beyond that, a post-2015 vision for ASEAN should build on the foundation set out in the ASEAN Community blueprints and "be bold and ahead of the curve".

But ASEAN should be cautious about adding dialogue partners, Mr Lee said. There are currently 10 such partners including China, Japan and the US. "We should be careful about expanding ASEAN, given our major priorities within ASEAN and resource constraints."

He called for a speeding up of negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) - a trade pact involving ASEAN and six partner economies including China and India.

ASEAN must show leadership and adopt creative approaches where needed, he said, as Singapore prepares to host the fifth round of the RCEP negotiations next month. He hopes countries will be able to settle a basic framework of using a positive or negative list in the trade negotiations when they meet in Singapore.

A positive list means countries negotiate based only on items that have been agreed on, while a negative list is more challenging, as it means everything is on the table except for items on the list. Mr Lee said he hopes "to have this done by the end of the next year".

Territorial spat not a problem with ASEAN: China
It hints that some countries are using issue to derail its ties with grouping
By Kor Kian Beng China Bureau Chief In Beijing, The Straits Times, 12 May 2014

CHINA has insisted that escalating tension in the South China Sea territorial dispute is not a problem between the mainland and ASEAN nations as a whole.

In a late night statement last Saturday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry suggested instead that some countries, which it did not name, were trying to use the issue to derail Beijing's relationship with the South-east Asian grouping.

"The Chinese side is always opposed to one or two countries' attempts to use the South (China) Sea issue to harm the overall friendship and cooperation between China and ASEAN," the ministry's spokesman Hua Chunying said.

Beijing's response came hours after ASEAN's foreign ministers, who were meeting in Myanmar over the weekend, issued a joint statement expressing "serious concerns" over recent flare-ups in the South-east Asian maritime hub.

The Philippines' arrest of 11 Chinese fishermen for turtle- poaching, as well as China's placement of an oil rig near Vietnam - both incidents taking place in disputed waters - have stirred tensions in the past week, and piqued concerns within ASEAN over an increasingly assertive China.

But China has insisted that its oil rig move near the contested Paracels, which has sparked collisions between Chinese and Vietnamese vessels, was legitimate based on its U-shaped, nine-dash line that claims up to 90 per cent of the resource-rich South China Sea.

A Vietnamese media report yesterday said China also sent two groups of military aircraft, including fighter jets, to protect its oil rig. The Chinese planes were seen flying above Vietnamese ships at a height of about 800m to 1,000m, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported on its website.

Chinese state media made no mention of the decision to send fighter jets to the area, though the official Xinhua news agency weighed in with a sharply worded commentary slamming the Vietnamese government.

"The Vietnamese side has framed up charges, blaming China for the row, hyping an outdated 'China threat' claim and stirring up waves in the already unpeaceful South China Sea," the Xinhua commentary said.

China faces overlapping sovereignty claims from four ASEAN nations - the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei - and Taiwan.

Observers believe China's oil rig move, besides being possibly prompted by Vietnamese-US development of natural gas fields near the Paracels, is also largely aimed as a warning against the United States and its allies in the region.

Beijing fears that its neighbours may have been emboldened to take a more provocative stand on territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas after US President Barack Obama's recent visit to the region, where he offered strong defence backing for the Philippines and Japan.

Last month, two US Navy ships also conducted six days of non-combat exercises with the Vietnamese military.

China has insisted that bilateral talks with the South China Sea claimants are the best way to resolve the issue. But Beijing has recently agreed to undertake multilateral negotiations with the ASEAN grouping on the proposed code of conduct aimed at managing territorial disputes and preventing armed conflict.

Viet PM urges ASEAN to protest against China's oil rig move
The Straits Times, 12 May 2014

NAYPYIDAW/HANOI - Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has urged his ASEAN counterparts to protest against what he termed China's "serious violation" in the South China Sea, as thousands of Vietnamese protesters took to the streets yesterday to decry Beijing's deployment of a deep-water drilling rig in contested waters.

Vietnam's government has called the placement of the exploration rig by China in waters near the disputed Paracel Islands a violation of its sovereignty. Both countries have also reported collisions between their ships in the area.

"This extremely dangerous action has been and is directly threatening peace, stability and maritime security and safety," Mr Dung said in Naypyidaw, where he was attending an ASEAN summit with regional leaders.

Prior to his remarks, anti-China rallies broke out in several major Vietnamese cities. According to Professor Jonathan London at City University of Hong Kong, the Vietnamese leadership uses public protest as a means of expressing extreme discontent with Beijing.

About 1,000 people marched along Ho Chi Minh City streets. Meanwhile, hundreds gathered at a public square in front of the Chinese embassy in the capital city of Hanoi, as police officers watched without interrupting.

There were smaller protests in Danang and Hue in central Vietnam, Tuoi Tre newspaper reported. Protesters carried signs and banners, sang and chanted to protest China's exploration offshore.

"This is the largest anti-Chinese demonstration I have ever seen in Hanoi," said war veteran Dang Quang Thang, 74. "We are here to express the will of the Vietnamese people to defend our territory at all costs. We are ready to die to protect our nation."

Vietnam's tightly controlled state media has covered the oil rig dispute closely and reported on yesterday's demonstrations.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BLOOMBERG