THE FOREIGN ministers of Asean and China yesterday announced significant progress in negotiations towards establishing a Code of Conduct (COC) on behaviour in the contentious South China Sea.

At their annual meeting, they narrowed down their ideas to a single draft text, which will be a living document and the basis of future negotiations, Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, who co-chaired the meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, said yesterday.

A general view of the meeting between Russian delegates and ASEAN foreign ministers during the 51st ASEAN Foreign Minister’s Meeting (AMM) in Singapore, 02 August 2018. // EPA-EFE PHOTO

“We also agreed on the key modalities for future rounds of negotiation,” he said at the opening session of the meeting but did not give detail of such modalities. Balakrishnan clarified after the Asean-China Ministerial Meeting that the progress made did not mean all territorial disputes were resolved.

“While negotiation is yet to be over, [the single text] made to generate the COC ensure that peace and stability are built up,” the minister said. “Thus we can make collective progress while taking time to resolve territorial disputes.”

While details of the single text were not revealed due to the sensitivity of the matter, Balakrishnan hinted that it would not set deadlines over further negotiations. “It’s impossible to set deadlines. A lot [of decisions] would depend on the mutual confidence of all parties,” he said.

“I would say that right now, everyone is glad and hopes that we are not in a position to put a specific deadline,” he said, adding, “So nobody would feel locked or overridden.”

Approved by ministers yesterday, the Single Draft COC Negotiating Text was originally conceived during the 15th Asean-China Senior Officials’ Meeting on the Implementation of the DOC in Changsha, China, in June.

With Singapore’s role as Asean-China coordinator ending, the progress made would help the Philippines, which takes over the reins this month, to carry on negotiations, Balakrishnan said.

Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan (L) and Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai (R) attend a signing ceremony of the Instrument of Accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia by the Islamic Republic of Iran on the sidelines of the 51st ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM) in Singapore, 02 August 2018. // EPA-EFE PHOTO

Many Asean members have been at loggerheads with giant neighbour China for a long time due to territorial disputes on the South China Sea. Among Asean claimants, the Philippines and Vietnam are at the forefront of the conflict, as they have faced tensions, stand-offs and clashes with China.

Asean and China signed the Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) in 2002 but the non-binding document failed to prevent conflicts in the contentious sea. Both sides agreed years ago to have a legally binding instrument as a COC to regulate behaviour in the sea.

Having a single text for future negotiation is regarded as a significant step, said a diplomat, as stakeholders, in the past, always put their own versions on the table, making the talks very complicated.

While differences remained on both sides, it would be easier as all the elements will be in a single text, Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai said, adding, “this is a good sign that Asean and China share the same will”.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the adoption of a single text was “significant progress”.

China and Asean have full capacity to achieve stability and peace in the South China Sea. Both sides will be able to reach consensus on a set of regional rules, he said.

“We believe that without any intervention from outside, the COC will speed up,” he said. “China and Asean can build a house together. In the past, there were 11 designs from 11 countries. Now, we have a single design of this house, and we have also put in place the pillars of this house,” Wang Yi told a press conference.

Asean foreign ministers, in their joint communique issued after the 51st ministerial meeting yesterday, said they noted that Asean member states and China had agreed on a Single Draft COC Negotiation Text during a meeting of senior officials in June. “In this regard, we emphasise the need to maintain an environment conducive to the COC negotiations,” said the joint statement.

However, a major concern currently is the militarisation of the sea, as China has continued its land reclamation and installation of facilities for military purpose.

An earlier version of the joint communique draft, seen by The Nation, suggested that Vietnam would propose to add “militarisation” as one of the sources of concerns to be taken note of by Asean and China.

The term, however, was omitted in the paper’s final version. “We took note of some concerns on land reclamation and activities in the area, which have eroded trust and confidence, increased tensions and may undermine peace, security, and stability in the region,” it says.

However, it does emphasise the importance of non-militarisation and self-restraint in the conduct of all activities by claimants and all other states that could “further complicate the situation and escalate tensions in the South China Sea”.

“We stressed the importance of undertaking confidence building and preventive measures to enhance, among others, trust and confidence amongst parties,” it says, adding that peaceful resolution by international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is to be pursued.

Myanmar’s presidential office announced on Monday that it has set up a commission as part of a national initiative to address reconciliation, peace and development in Rakhine.

Led by the Philippines’ former deputy foreign minister, Rasario Manalo, the body was denounced by observers as a political gimmick to reduce international pressure, notably from the United Nations, over the alleged ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya community.

The Asean foreign ministers discussed and received a briefing from Myanmar’s minister for the Office of the State Counsellor Kyaw Tint on the humanitarian situation.

In a joint statement issued after the meeting in Singapore on Thursday, Asean’s ministers said they welcomed the establishment of the commission.

“We expressed our continued support for Myanmar in its effort to bring peace, stability and the rule of law, to promote harmony and reconciliation among various communities as well as to ensure sustainable and equitable development in Rakhine state,” according to the statement.

Some 700,000 Muslim Rohingya fled from the state from August last year after a group of Rohingya militants allegedly attacked border outposts, prompting a harsh response from the military and a clearance operation affecting the broader Rohingya population.

The ministers welcomed the arrangement on the return of those displaced from Rakhine state between Myanmar and Bangladesh signed in November 2017, and the memorandum of understanding signed by Myanmar and United Nations agencies in June to facilitate the repatriation process.

“We underlined the importance of the expeditious commencement of the voluntary return of the displaced to Myanmar in a safe, secure and dignified way without undue delay, and stressed the need to find a comprehensive and durable solution to address the root causes of the conflict and to create a conducive environment so that the affected communities can rebuild their lives,” the statement said.

The UN and many international rights defenders blamed the government and the military for ethnic cleansing during the crackdown.

A Fortify Rights report indicated that the military had planned the genocide of the Rohingya and called for the International Criminal Court to prosecute those responsible.

However, the Office of the President issued a statement blaming the supposed militant group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, for the violence in Rakhine.

While Asean called on Myanmar to address problems at the root cause of the conflict, the group refrained from mentioning the issue of ethnic cleansing under the clearance operations.

Manalo, 83, a career diplomat, political scientist and educator in the Philippines, is the special representative of the Philippines to the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, but many rights defenders were not impressed by her earlier performances.

Other members of the commission are Kenzo Oshima, a former Japanese permanent representative to the UN, Myanmar’s former constitutional-tribunal chair, Mya Thein, and Aung Tun Thet, formerly of Unicef.

The commission will be assisted by national and international legal and technical experts, according to Nay Pyi Taw.

The monument has been closed since Wednesday afternoon as unions locked horns with management over a decision to assign separate elevators to visitors with pre-booked tickets and those who buy them on site.

At the same time, the tower now sets aside half of daily tickets for internet customers, up from just 20 percent previously.

Workers say the changes have resulted in lopsided queues that can extend to three hours for those waiting to pay for tickets, and up to an hour for internet customers who are supposed to have reserved time slots.

They want more flexibility in managing the thousands hoping to reach the top of the “Iron Lady” each day during the peak summer tourist season.

The tower’s operator counters that lines haven’t gotten any worse than before, even as visitor numbers have risen, with more than 6.2 million tickets sold last year.

But many tourists showing up Thursday morning had no idea what the strike was about, with signs saying only that the monument was closed.

“I’m annoyed, I’m not going to lie,” said Robin Frye of Birmingham, England, who was visiting Paris for the first time.

“It’s going to throw off our whole trip if I’m honest,” she said.

“We got up at 6:00 am and were among the first people here, but it’s closed,” said Adele Liliane, who arrived this week from Montreal, Canada.

– ‘Apologies’ –

Negotiations resumed Thursday after workers held a general assembly in the morning to discuss a proposal offered by the site’s operator SETE, which is majority owned by the city of Paris.

“The SETE is well aware of the disappointment for visitors because of the monument’s closure, and its negative impact on the image of both the city and country,” the company said in a statement.

“It offers its apologies to everyone — Parisians and French as well as foreign tourists.”

The tower’s 300-strong staff has staged strikes repeatedly in recent years over issues including pickpocketing and maintenance work.

“It’s unfortunate to end up here, with visitors being penalised, but we did everything to avoid it,” said Denis Vavassori of the CGT union.

He said directing people to the elevator with the shortest waits regardless of the type of ticket they bought, as they used to do, would ease the congestion.

The SETE has indicated it may be willing to try out the unions’ plan.

“We’re hoping to resume work as quickly as possible,” Vavassori said. “For the time being I’d say we’ve got a solid basis for discussions.”

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, has acknowledged that his unvarnished criticism of world leaders has made it impossible for him to secure a second term.

“I have irritated, I think, all governments over the course of [my] four years,” Zeid, a member of Jordan’s royal family, told The British Broadcasting Corp. at the weekend.

Among the leaders he had pricked in defense of human rights were Trump and Hungary’s Viktor Orban, for their anti-immigrant moves, and the Philippine President, for threatening UN special rapporteurs with arrest if they came to the Philippines to investigate the thousands of killings in his brutal war on drugs and listing one of them as a terrorist for defending the rights of indigenous peoples on the southern island of Mindanao.

Change of tone

As the deadline approaches to replace Zeid, one candidate vying for the job has argued that with the UN human rights system facing unprecedented threats, the rights chief’s office needs a change in tone.

“The next high commissioner must understand that defending human rights is not about attacking governments, it is not an exercise aiming to attribute blame or fault,” Nils Melzer, the current UN special rapporteur on torture, wrote in a letter announcing his bid to succeed Zeid.

“There is no point in winning perceived moral superiority at the price of mutual loss of respect, influence and understanding,” added Melzer, a Swiss national.

Melzer told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that even though he was probably not a front-runner for the job, he tweeted his application letter to trigger a necessary debate.

He expressed “tremendous respect” for Zeid but said that “antagonizing” political leaders did not work.

“We are on the brink of the whole system rights system disintegrating,” Melzer said. “If we want to avoid a global shipwreck, we will have to find a common language.”

Anyone interested in the long-term survival of the UN human rights system “will realize that the high commissioner can’t be an activist,” he said.

‘A bed of nails’

Zeid told BBC that other UN departments sometimes viewed the rights office as “sanctimonious” and that at points during his tenure, he was encouraged to use “alternative vocabulary” when denouncing abuses.

But tensions between the high commissioner for human rights and the rest of the UN system are hardly unique to Zeid, as the job typically requires harsh criticism of governments that other agencies are lobbying for resources and cooperation.

Edward Mortimer, a former UN communications director, called the rights chief post “a bed of nails,” in an article for the United Nations Association of the United Kingdom (UNA-UK), an NGO tracking the selection process.

Some argue that Zeid’s approach to the role denouncing the individuals personally responsible for the grave abuses is the only viable strategy.

“This is really what the job is all about,” Louis Charbonneau, the UN director at Human Rights Watch, told AFP.

“It is not about tiptoeing around. It is using the bully pulpit,” Charbonneau said.

Former Irish President Mary Robinson, who served as UN rights chief from 1997 to 2002, told UNA-UK that “if you become too popular in that job, remember, you are not doing a good job.”

The contenders

Zeid’s term expires this month. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres formally posted the vacancy in June and reportedly began interviews in July.

Few details about the selection process have been released, but multiple UN officials and diplomats have said that former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet was approached  although she reportedly turned the job down initially.

Guterres is widely believed to prefer a woman for the role.

For activists, a priority is establishing whether Guterres is looking for someone who aligns with Melzer’s vision of a high commissioner who condemns abuses without denouncing leaders.

As Charbonneau noted, Guterres “has come under criticism for not being as outspoken as groups like ours would like on human rights.”

With Trump cutting support and China as well as Russia consistently undermining human rights criticisms from the United Nations, activists worry that Guterres may want someone more conciliatory toward the three most powerful permanent Security Council members.

Zeid told the BBC that even a partial bow to such states would be a mistake.

“Governments can defend themselves,” he said. “I am not there to defend them. I am there to defend their people who have been discriminated against.”

The 16-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is poised to become the largest free-trade agreement in the world, covering about half of its population.

It notably excludes the United States, which had been leading another regional trade pact — the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — until US President Donald Trump abruptly abandoned it last year.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Southeast Asian countries were “redoubling their efforts to conclude the RCEP… by the end of the year”.

The planned RCEP pact would group the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

In his comments, which came at the start of a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers in Singapore, Lee also warned about escalating global trade tensions.

“The rules-based multilateral trading system, which has underpinned ASEAN’s growth and prosperity, is under pressure,” he warned.

“It is important that ASEAN continues to support the multilateral trading system.”

His remarks came soon after the US escalated a trade row with China Wednesday by saying it was considering more than doubling threatened tariffs on a range of Chinese imports worth $200 billion.

The US has already imposed 25 percent tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese goods, with another $16 billion to be targeted in coming weeks.

The RCEP has gained attention since the US pulled out of the TPP, which was billed as the world’s biggest trade pact when it was signed in February 2016 following years of negotiations.

Under then-US President Barack Obama it was sold to American allies as a unique opportunity to seize the initiative on worldwide trade — and ensure China does not get to dictate global terms of commerce.

The 11 remaining TPP nations signed a slimmed down version of the agreement in March.

But Beijing is now keen to use Washington’s rejection of that pact to build enthusiasm for its own deal and increase influence in the region.

RCEP is a more modest deal that prescribes lower and more limited regulatory standards.

China has announced that it is sending one of its best search and rescue ships to the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, a move seen as a subtle way to assert its claims amid tension over the disputed waters.

The ship Nan Hai Jiu 115, dispatched by the Nanhai Rescue Bureau of the Ministry of Transport, set sail for Zamora Reef (Subi) from the southernmost Hainan island province of China Friday last week and was expected to arrive last Monday, state-run newspaper China Daily said in a report early this week.

Zamora Reef is one of China’s three biggest artificial islands in the Spratlys. It is located 12 nautical miles from Pagasa Island (Thitu), the largest of the nine features occupied by the Philippines in the South China Sea and the only one inhabited by civilians.

A separate report by Xinhua news agency said that the ship will be “permanently stationed” in Zamora Reef. It also marked the first deployment of its rescue force in the Spratlys.

The search-and-rescue ship, described as China’s “most advanced” of its kind, is also capable of emergency medical services, firefighting and oil spill cleanups. It has a heliport that can accommodate medium-sized rescue helicopters, the report said.

“China’s construction work on the Nansha (Spratlys) Islands and reefs aims not only to improve the lives of people stationed there and enhance their ability to cope with maritime security threats, but also to increase public services in the region,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang was quoted as saying.

‘Grey zone tactic’

The presence of China’s ships in the Spratlys is not new. China’s missile-equipped warships and coast guard vessels have been regularly sighted around its seven man-made islands since 2017, based on satellite and surveillance images.

“The deployment of a search and rescue ship is a grey zone tactic,” Dr. Jay Batongbacal, director of the University of the Philippines Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea told Inquirer.net.

In a report for the Department of State last year, the International Security Advisory Board defines “grey zone” as “the use of techniques to achieve a nation’s goals and frustrate those of its rivals by employing instruments of power—often asymmetric and ambiguous in character—that are not direct use of acknowledged regular military forces.”

With this tactic, Batongbacal explained “it allows China to permanently deploy assets in Spratlys without appearing to be directly threatening, avoid protest, and ostensibly as a public good.”

“At the same time, it provides an excuse for continuous surveillance and monitoring of all maritime activities that might require search and rescue,” he said, adding that the deployment would also be used “to demonstrate administration of the area as a regular part of its territory.”

The maritime expert also warned that this deployment is “the pretext for a stronger presence so close to our largest island.”

“It could also be a probe: a precursor to similar deployments on Mischief Reef. If we don’t object to such a deployment very close to Pagasa less than 15 nautical miles away, then we shouldn’t object to stationing a similar vessel on Mischief Reef 125 nautical miles from Palawan,” he added.

Mischief Reef, locally known as Panganiban Reef, is within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone that was seized and controlled by China since 1995.

China insists that the facilities in its man-made islands in the Spratlys are primarily for civilian purposes despite the recently reported deployment of missile launchers and radar- jamming equipment.

Analysts say that the missile shelters, runways, ports, aircraft hangars built in recent years make it appear that these islands are military installations and definitely not for civilian use.

The bitterly contested waterway is also subject to territorial claims from the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.

The proposed projects cover infrastructure, public health, community-based development and vocational education, Don told reporters after meeting with his Norwegian counterpart Ine Marie Eriksen Soreide on the sidelines of the 51st Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Singapore.

Thailand, China and Japan have all expressed economic interest in Myanmar’s western coastal state. Last month, Myanmar and a Thailand-based business institute discussed recruiting investors for large-scale projects while China is eyeing the possibility of developing a deep-sea port as part of a special economic zone.

Japan, meanwhile, will continue providing economic development to the state through a poverty eradication project under the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

The economic schemes will help lubricate the economy, benefiting not just local residents but also the Myanmar government, which is being held responsible for the purges against hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas in the same state.

Japanese ambassador to Myanmar, Ichiro Maruyama said earlier that criticism of international community for the problems facing Rakhine State “totally goes against the actual situation in Rakhine”.

“The issue in Rakhine State might well have lasted a long time and that’s because it’s an historical one. Japan appreciates the efforts made by the Union government, the Rakhine State government and the residents. The Japanese government will keep on trying to give assistance to Myanmar,” Maruyama told Eleven Media Group.

Norway, meanwhile, has been vocal in calling for the respect of the Rohingyas’ fundamental rights. Last month, Norway underlined the need for protection for this minority group, a lasting solution to their citizenship issues as well as their right to return to their homes in Myanmar.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Don said, Soreide also invited Thailand to hold discussions with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), an FTA comprising of non-European Union countries Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

Don said that Thailand might consider engaging with EFTA but without rushing, similar to the way it is holding discussions talks with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the ongoing proposed FTA between Asean members and six Asia-Pacific countries.

The minister also promoted Thailand’s much-hyped Eastern Economic Corridor mega-project plans to the Scandinavian country, citing Thailand’s strategic location in Asean in terms of logistic connectivity.

Last year, Norway imported Thai goods, mainly iron steel and machinery, worth US$ 752 million (Bt24.9 billion) and exported US$ 333-million (Bt 11 billion) worth of goods to Thailand, mainly fertilisers, seafood and machinery.