People’s Daily: Philippine South China Sea diplomacy “fruitless”

The People’s Daily pours scorn on recent Philippine attempts to coordinate ASEAN  diplomacy on the South China Sea: During the meeting, maritime legal experts neither endorsed the plan for joint South China Sea development, nor confirmed the legal basis for the Philippine proposal. Two ASEAN members, Cambodia and Laos, did not even send delegates to ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

The People's Daily pours scorn on recent Philippine attempts to coordinate ASEAN  diplomacy on the South China Sea:

The People’s Daily pours scorn on recent Philippine attempts to coordinate ASEAN  diplomacy on the South China Sea:

During the meeting, maritime legal experts neither endorsed the plan for joint South China Sea development, nor confirmed the legal basis for the Philippine proposal. Two ASEAN members, Cambodia and Laos, did not even send delegates to the meeting. Such facts demonstrate the lack of consensus within ASEAN. There is no collective will to unite and confront China, especially among those who have no part in the South China Sea dispute.

Before Philippine President Benigno Aquino III’s current visit to Japan, diplomats from both countries had engaged in talks over the South China Sea dispute. Backed by the US, the Philippines now tries to involve more regional players like Japan to collectively check China. But such efforts will be fruitless.

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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