Southeast Asian leaders have agreed not to “internationalise” the maritime disputes in the resource-rich South China Sea, in a move that will assuage Beijing but complicate US and Japanese strategy in the region.
At a twice yearly meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations said it would only discuss the deepening territorial rows with China – excluding other nations such as the US and Japan which claim a national interest in debating regional security issues.
“The Asean leaders decided that they would not internationalise the South China Sea from now on, that they will focus this entirely within the existing Asean-China mechanisms,” said Kao Kim Hourn, a senior Cambodian official.
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