China shrugs off blame for aborted Asean code
- Written by Tribune
- Sunday, 15 July 2012
Cambodia, which voted down demands for the joint statement to mention recent territorial disputes, accused some of its Asean co-members, mainly the Philippines and Vietnam, as “taking the communique as a hostage.”
“China believes that at the Asean Regional Forum, parties involved exchanged ideas on East Asian regional cooperation and major regional and international issues,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said at a regular news briefing.
“China’s views and positions on issues in various fields were well understood and received support from many countries,” he said.
Foreign ministers from China and Asean member states have been hotly debating the language of the joint statement since Monday in which some Asean members insisted on including references to recent South China Sea disputes.
The Philippines and the United States have called for a unified Asean to use its collective clout to put pressuse on China but Beijing insisted on dealing with the countries concerned bilaterally and has criticized outside intervention.
The Philippines lambasted the failure at the end of the talks on Friday, blaming it on China. It had insisted that the joint statement must include reference to its armed standoff with China last month over Huang-yan Island in the South China Sea..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/headlines/item/1563-china-shrugs-off-blame-for-aborted-asean-code
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