From the Philippine News Agency (Jul 26): Think tank says ASEAN’s weak statement on PCA’s WPS ruling a “lost opportunity”

Stratbase Albert Del Rosario Institute (ARDi) President Dindo Manhit said ASEAN’s weak statement on the ruling of Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) on West Philippine Sea is a lost opportunity for the bloc.

“As with everything in ASEAN, countries win some and lose some. It’s hard to say what the Philippines gained, but it is clear what the region lost: an opportunity to speak decisively against the clearly coercive diplomacy of its larger neighbor,” Manhit, in a statement on Tuesday.

On Monday, foreign ministers of ASEAN member states and China issued a joint statement in a meeting in Vientiane, Laos.

“The group reaffirmed their respect for and commitment to freedom of navigation in and overflight above the West Philippine Sea as provided by international law, but stops quite short of acknowledging the ruling itself or affirming acceptance of the tribunal’s findings,” Manhit noted.

In a previous forum organized by Stratbase ARDi early this month, Center for Strategic and International Southeast Asia Program Deputy Director Murray Hiebert said that instead of ASEAN’s consensus-building mechanism, the bloc must come up with an ‘ASEAN Minus X’ formula on PCA ruling on West Philippine Sea.

Hiebert noted that ASEAN’s statement has impact on issues, recalling the bloc’s “forceful statement” in China’s occupation in Philippines’ Mischief Reef, a reef in the Spratly Islands in the West Philippine Sea, more than a decade ago.

“It (ASEAN statement) changed China’s behavior,” he added.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=907565