Leaders from Southeast Asian countries and China agreed on Wednesday to set up a telephone hotline meant to prevent military clashes in the South China Sea.
The agreement to develop the hotline, reported by the Wall Street Journal, came as regional leaders at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Vientiane, Laos, avoided mentioning the ruling of an international tribunal in July rejecting China’s sovereignty claims over disputed territory in the South China Sea.
China has refused to accept the ruling by a tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands, which concluded that Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea have no legal or historical basis.
But leaders of ASEAN member countries, several of whom have made their own claims over territory in the South China Sea, did not broach the ruling on Wednesday when cementing the agreement on the hotline.
The Journal reported:
The ten-member [ASEAN], which includes other claimants such as the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei, instead confined their remarks to a relatively anodyne statement saying that ASEAN nations affirmed their respect for international law.
Observers said the outcome would likely please China, and provide a setback to both the U.S. and Japan, which have repeatedly urged Beijing to respect the tribunal’s verdict.
[...]
"China will be satisfied with the outcome, as will ASEAN," said Ian Storey, Southeast Asia expert at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. "But at the end of the day, it’s movement in lieu of progress."
It was previously reported that the ASEAN chairman’s statement at the summit would make no mention of the international tribunal ruling on territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The ASEAN summit took place following the G-20 Summit in China, during which the Philippines spotted an increased number of Chinese ships near the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. China has controlled the shoal since 2012, despite the fact that the international tribunal ruling earlier this year dismissed Beijing’s claims of sovereignty over the territory.
Barack Obama attended both summits on his final trip to Asia as president of the United States.