Unified ASEAN can certainly avert South China Sea conflict
Tensions in the South China Ocean will increase due to a U.S.-China rivalry that may be kept on check, only if Southeast Asian countries took a good united stand to affect the position quo, a top Philippine reliability official said in Wednesday.
The Association of Southeast Asian Countries (ASEAN) was caught up in the battle for regional influence but it could do considerably more to make sure stability and should have a common approach, Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told a security forum.
"Where maybe the ASEAN in this superpower rivalry? Despite its avowed ASEAN centrality, it really is not," Lorenzana explained. "ASEAN would exert considerable effect on issues and incidents in the South China Ocean only if it could become one."Lorenzana's remarks will be unusually blunt for a minister from within the 10-member bloc, which rarely speaks up as a group against militarisation or perceived works of aggression, with some claims concerned about angering Beijing or Washington.
The Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam have overlapping claims with China and all but Brunei have already been involved in standoffs this season with Chinese vessels.China says it has historical sovereignty over nine-tenths of the South China Ocean. It generally does not recognise a 2016 worldwide arbitral ruling that invalidated those promises. Lorenzana said the problem was front and center during discussions since May with counterparts found in Japan, China, Australia, France and America.
"What do this reveal? That the South China Ocean is important to a lot of nations," he stated."That the tension found in the South China Sea will continue steadily to rise seeing as China will continue steadily to accuse the U.S. and other countries of provocation and destabilisation ... that the West is trying to support the rise of China."
China features stepped up its coastguard existence and army drills this year, including near islands also claimed by Vietnam, as the United States features deployed warships to demonstrate the flexibility of navigation. They accuse the other person of deliberate provocations. Lorenzana said Southeast Asia worries the chance of armed conflict is rising.U.S. ally the Philippines, he explained, "will be involved whether she likes it or certainly not."
