The United States yesterday backed the centrality of Asean in the regional security architecture and to deal with China over the South China Sea dispute despite a recent diplomatic discord within the grouping following a special meeting in Kunming last week.

Asean for several decades has been a consistent voice for a rule-based system of international law and will continue to play that role, said a senior official at the US State Department. Amid pressure from China, foreign ministers of Asean had to retract their joint statement that expressed concern over the construction of artificial islands and military facilities in the troubled sea.

An Asean official revealed that the foreign ministers of the group had initially reached a common ground in Kunming to have a rare and candid statement over the Chinese territory, but Laos, which currently holds chairmanship of Asean, and Cambodia expressed dissent, which led to the withdrawal of the statement.

Laos and Cambodia heavily rely on economic assistance, trade and investment from China for their development. Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday rejected the allegation that his government had bowed to Beijing and broken Asean consensus.

However, the US official told Southeast Asian journalists in a telephonic briefing yesterday that the retraction of a statement did not change Asean’s stance on the controversial issue.

Asean over the last several months had made a number of statements, including a statement by foreign ministers back in April, that the activities in the South China Sea and in the area are of concern and that they would like to see peaceful management of the disputes. The way forward is based on international laws and a rule-based system, the official said.

Asean’s unity and centrality are questioned as some members of the group have overlapping claims and territorial disputes over the islands and shoals in the South China Sea with China for years. While there have been calls for the group to speak in one voice, members have used different approaches to deal with the case. The Philippines took the case to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in 2013 in a bid to invalidate the vaguely drawn territorial line.

No US position on claims

China dismissed the case saying the international tribunal has no authority to rule on the case and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) does not provide any legal ground for the court to rule on territorial disputes.

The US, which actively commented on the development in the South China Sea, did not take a position on the claims on land features but Washington was mindful of how those claims are advanced and how countries behave in the important international space, the State Department official said.

The court would not decide on sovereignty over the land feature but it will potentially provide an important degree of clarity over the control and sovereignty over maritime space, the official said and noted that the verdict was due in weeks.