Malaysia tempers expectations as it leads Asean
LANGKAWI—Malaysia is committed to addressing regional issues, but expectations on Myanmar and the advancing of talks on a code of conduct between the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and China for the South China Sea should be tempered, its foreign minister said on Sunday.
“To say that we will have a solution immediately is going to be very ambitious,” Malaysian Foreign Ministry secretary general Amran Mohamed Zin told a media briefing ahead of the closed-door retreat among Asean foreign ministers on Langkawi island.
Malaysia is hosting its first meeting as chair of the regional bloc which is dealing with Beijing’s aggression in the South China Sea and a faltering Asean peace process for Myanmar, where the ruling military plans to hold an election this year.
Each Asean member state has a role to play in ensuring the South China Sea is a “sea of peace and trade,” Amran said, adding that tentative progress has been made toward creating a code of conduct with China, which claims sovereignty over most of the strategic waterway.
The South China Sea, a conduit for about $3 trillion of annual ship-borne trade, has been the site of heated standoffs in the past two years between Asean member nation, the Philippines, and China, a major source of the region’s trade and investment.
Trickier issues
On Saturday, Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo said that while discussions on a code of conduct between Asean and China were well underway, it was time to start thrashing out the meatier, trickier aspects.
“It’s time that we try to look at issues which are, in our view, essential, which have not really been discussed in a thorough way or even much less negotiated. These are the so-called milestone issues,” Manalo told Reuters.
Those would include the code’s scope, whether it is legally binding and its impact on third-party countries, he said, adding the aim was to make it effective and substantive.
“We have to begin addressing these important issues,” Manalo added. “This might be the best way to at least move the negotiation forward.”
Both Asean and Beijing pledged in 2002 to create a code of conduct, but took 15 years to start discussions and progress has been slow.
Vietnam and Malaysia have also made protests over the conduct of Chinese vessels in their exclusive economic zones (EEZs).
Beijing insists it is operating lawfully in its territory and does not recognize a 2016 arbitration ruling that said its claim has no basis under international law.
Myanmar issue
Myanmar has been in turmoil since early 2021 when its military overthrew an elected civilian government, triggering prodemocracy protests that morphed into a widening armed rebellion that has taken over swathes of the country.
Despite being battered on multiple front lines, its economy in tatters and dozens of political parties banned, the junta is pushing to hold an election this year, which critics have widely derided as a sham to keep the military in power through proxies.
Asean has so far failed to implement a “Five-Point Consensus” peace plan unveiled months after the coup, which prescribes dialogue and an end to hostilities, and it has yet to discuss a common position on the election.
“Everybody wants to help Myanmar … engagements have happened and will continue under Malaysia’s chairmanship,” Amran said.
Manalo said the civil war in Myanmar remains a big challenge for Asean, which has barred the generals from meetings for failing to implement the bloc’s peace plan.
He added that it was premature to discuss if Asean would make preconditions for recognizing the election, which he said must involve as much of the population as possible.
“If elections are held without being seen as inclusive, not transparent, I believe it would be very difficult for those elections to create more legitimacy,” Manalo said.
Warning to China
A House lawmaker, meanwhile, welcomed US Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio’s stance against Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea, saying it should serve as a warning against China’s “continuing disrespect” of the sovereignty of both the Philippines and Taiwan.
Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said Rubio’s statements should deter China’s bullying and harassment of Filipino fishermen within the country’s 322-kilometer (200-mile) EEZ.
Rubio, who appeared last week before the US Senate foreign relations committee for his nomination as state secretary, discouraged China from doing “anything rash or irrational” when it came to the Philippines or Taiwan if it was serious about stabilizing its relations with the United States.
He said that should any “miscommunication” or “inadvertent conflict” arise from China’s aggression in the West Philippine Sea, the United States could be compelled to defend the Philippines as a treaty ally which would have a huge global impact.
“It’s pleasing to hear and learn that the incoming US secretary of state has a deep knowledge of China’s atrocities in the West Philippine Sea and against Taiwan and that they are prepared to assist should any untoward incident happen,” Barbers said. —WITH A REPORT FROM JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE
