FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Asean must TAKE THE HELM in critical sea disputes

Asean must TAKE THE HELM in critical sea disputes

China's aggression threatens to throw region's development off course

Recently exposed work by China to build islands in disputed |territory in the South China Sea has raised grave concerns among rival claimants to the territory as well as other members of the international community.

China needs to listen to those concerns, cease its aggressive land grab and offer genuine solutions to the disputes. 
Beijing’s attempts to alter the status quo in the sea, where China has long been at loggerheads with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), threaten to ignite more conflict, deepen rifts in the region and jeopardise any peaceful solution to the problem.
Satellite images released last week by the United States Defence Department indicate that Chinese dredgers have reclaimed six square kilometres of land in the disputed Spratly Islands in just four months. According to the US analysis, China has built harbours, communications and surveillance systems, logistical support facilities and at least one airfield in the reclaimed area.
Vietnam, which also claims sovereignty over the Spratlys, has repeatedly expressed concerns over the moves by China. On Friday the Hanoi government called on Beijing to immediately end its construction and expansion work on the islands’ reefs. Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry said the work had seriously violated its sovereignty and was causing deep concerns among the international community, including Asean, of which Vietnam is a member. 
The dispute is currently exercising diplomats at the UN, where China’s claim over the sea territory has been vigorously countered by Vietnam.
However, a diplomatic war will not resolve the problem. If each side insists on simply registering its claim, they can move no closer to the dia
 logue that is necessary to finding a mutually acceptable solution. Instead they risk an escalation of the dispute. 
While Asean has been engaged in a long struggle for a permanent solution to the sea disputes between China, a dialogue partner, and several of its members, the regional bloc needs to do something more in this particular case.
In 2002 Asean and China signed the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), and both sides are now in the process forging a regional code of conduct for good practice in the disputed sea zones. Although the DOC is a non-binding document, it was signed by every Asean member-country and by China. Asean should now remind Beijing that it has a duty to honour that pact and desist from its land-reclamation activities, which are undermining the spirit of the document.
If it refuses to respect the terms, Beijing would render useless any other pacts aimed at regulating states’ behaviour in the South China Sea. 
More importantly, to realise its dream of a 21st-century “Maritime Silk Road”, China needs the cooperation of countries in Southeast Asia. That cooperation cannot be secured while the disputes over sea territory rage. 
With its growing economic, political and military might, China is now the region’s superpower. The government in Beijing can do what it likes, secure in the knowledge of its regional supremacy. Yet without the consent and cooperation of its smaller neighbours, China cannot achieve its major goals. As such, it should relinquish its aggressive and short-sighted land grab in the South China Sea and focus instead on building a prosperous future with the help of Southeast Asia.
 
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