PHNOM PENH — Days of heated diplomacy ended in failure as splits over territorial disputes with China prevented Southeast Asian nations from issuing their customary joint statement at a summit Friday. Foreign ministers from the 10-member ASEAN bloc have this week tried to hammer out a final communique in Cambodia, which has held up progress on a draft code of conduct aimed at soothing tension in the flashpoint South China Sea. China claims sovereignty over nearly all of the resource-rich sea, which is home to vital shipping lanes, but the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei among others have competing claims in the area. Without mentioning China, Philippine Foreign Minister Albert del Rosario told a news conference in Manila that one country's intrusions into Philippine territory were part of a “creeping imposition” of its claim over the entire South China Sea and were raising the risk of a conflict. “We deplore the non-issuance of a joint communique... which was unprecedented in ASEAN's 45-year existence,” he said. Manila had insisted ASEAN refer to a standoff last month with China over a rocky outcrop known as the Scarborough Shoal, but Cambodia resisted. Taking “strong exception” to Cambodia for opposing mention of the shoal, the Philippine statement said divisions undercut previous ASEAN agreements on tackling disputes as a unit, “and not in a bilateral fashion — the approach which its northern neighbor (China) has been insisting on”. China is a key bankroller of Cambodia and some diplomats said Phnom Penh had played Beijing's hand at the summit by blocking a communique mentioning specific alleged infringements. Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong regretted the discord, but said he could “not accept that the joint communique has become the hostage of the bilateral issue between the Philippines and China”. — Agencies
