Discord over South China Sea clouds Asia-Europe summit

Tokyo, not a state directly involved in the South China Sea issue, should thus stop hyping up and interfering in the South China Sea issue and “exercise caution in its own words and deeds”, Li told Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a Friday meeting at the latter’s request.

Chinese officials did not speak to foreign reporters during the summit. As a result, no one has been able to fathom the reasons for its behavior, he said, adding that Japan’s new ambassador to Beijing will also need time to develop relations.

“Holding multilateral talks is better than bilateral talks”.

This week the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled China has no historic rights to resources within the area, a decision Beijing angrily rejected.

So far, major Chinese news portals have all led with variations of the headline “Xi Jinping says South China Sea islands have always belonged to China”, a statement that the UNCLOS-mandated tribunal did not in any way challenge. China’s none-too-subtle message: we will act as we please and you will hold your tongue or there will be unpleasant consequences.

One day after a United Nations tribunal ruled overwhelmingly against Chinese claims to huge swaths of the strategically important waterway, Beijing rebuffed the verdict, calling it “a piece of paper that is destined to come to naught”.

It said they “agreed on the critical importance of confidence building measures, of refraining from the use or threat of force and of disputes being resolved in accordance with principles of worldwide law, the U.N. Charter and the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea”.

Rival countries claim the territory of the South China Sea.

The decision also questioned the legality of China’s claim of – and construction on – several reefs also claimed by the Philippines, which brought the case.

With China’s troubled economy, internal discontent and power struggles resurfacing, and much slower growth in the long term due to the crisis buffeting export-dependent economies and the continued global recession, its leaders are faced with king-size headaches in attempting to strike a balance among ambition, necessity and capability.

There have also been no protests outside the Philippine Embassy in Beijing.

However, he adds that it will be extremely hard for China to reduce India’s naval presence in Indian Ocean as New Delhi’s control is quite substantial there. Driving attention towards this tough-sounding stance on territorial sovereignty provides good political cover for the quiet clarification of China’s maritime rights claims that may be underway. Whereas ASEAN member states – particularly the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia – generally have deep military ties with the US, they also value their economic ties with China. “They see Japan as acting on behalf of the West to thwart China”.

For Justice Antonio Carpio, who helped guide the Philippines’ case against China, the ruling provides instructions on working out contracts between two states seeking to tap resources inside EEZs. “In this regard the Ministers called for full respect of all provisions of UNCLOS, as well as the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and the Guidelines for the implementation of the DOC”, the communiqué read.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a briefing that China welcomes Duterte’s willingness to start talks.

After The Hague Arbitral Tribunal’s ruling, it is natural that some parties are happy, some welcome with reservations and others are unhappy.

Ms Elina Noor, director of foreign policy and security studies at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies in Malaysia, said: “The tribunal ruling clarifying the nature of the features in the Spratlys may make joint development initiatives more palatable, provided claimants do not make acceptance of sovereignty or sovereign rights a precondition”.