|
Cambodia's foreign ministry has rejected accusations it was responsible for leaving out any mention of an arbitration ruling on the South China Sea issue in a new ASEAN joint communique, saying instead that case claimant the Philippines was behind the blockage.
The Phnom Penh Post on Thursday "ed ministry spokesman Chum Sounry as saying that this specific dispute, one of several varying territorial claims in the maritime region, was between the Philippines and China and no one else.
He told the Post that "the Philippines stated in the meeting that they do not want ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) to be involved in the issue, so they took out the arbitration verdict from the joint statement."
An original draft of the statement, which was ultimately released on Monday, initially made no mention of the maritime issue at all.
The version that was finally released with consensus from all 10 bloc members included eight paragraphs on the issue, but failed to make any mention of this month's ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which ruled in the Philippines' favour.
Billy Chia-Lung Tai, a Cambodia-based human rights consultant and lecturer on international dispute resolution, told the Anadolu Agency on Thursday that the omission didn't seem like something that would concern the Philippines too much.
"Even if the Philippines government doesn't not wish to assert its new found rights under the award, it would sound fanciful that they wouldn't want to mention it," he said.
"It is possible that the Philippines did not put up too much of a fight, given the antagonising nature of the statement. But to suggest that they actively wanted to dump it sounds weird."
Speaking at a panel discussion on the South China Sea issue in Phnom Penh on Wednesday night, Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan told the audience that Cambodia "respects the DOC"—a Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea that was signed in 2002, but which only indicates an intention for the countries to sign a self-binding code of conduct.
That has not been signed.
"Cambodia doesn't belong to anyone… Western or Eastern... we want to see peace and see the issue being solved peacefully and cordially in cooperation," Siphan said.
"We don't want to see any party lose their face."
Siphan said the best way for the concerned parties to move forward is to hold talks on the issue. -
|
Poem
Manşetler
Spor
Son Dakika
Haber
Yerel Haberler
