South China Sea issue: Asean must work harder, says Freeman

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Freeman (left) giving her talk at Wisma Bapa Malaysia. — Photo by Muhd Rais Sanusi

Freeman (left) giving her talk at Wisma Bapa Malaysia. — Photo by Muhd Rais Sanusi

KUCHING: Asean countries must work harder to develop a greater team effort to settle the South China Sea issue with super power China.

In giving the advice, Dr Carla Freeman, the director of John Hopkins Foreign Policy Institute in Washington, USA, said Asean countries needed to show visionary leadership to tackle this issue.

“It is what that is needed for other countries involved in claiming the Paracels and the Spratlys to peacefully negotiate with China, which is now a super power,” she said in her talk at Wisma Bapa Malaysia here yesterday.

She is holding two talks here, both organised by Sarawak Development Institute (SDI). The next one is today, at Pustaka Negeri Sarawak.

Freeman said the US could not be the source of a visionary leadership as the US had its own interest when it comes to its relationship with China.

“How China is willing to see the end of the issue depends on how well the other Asean countries involved in the claim work with each other in discussing the issue with China as the USA could act as broker for the negotiation.”

The disputes for territories and sovereignty over Paracels and the Spratlys involved Malaysia, Brunei, Philippines, Vietnam, China and Taiwan.

Tensions have been reported to be on the increase in recent years.

With what they defined as the `nine-dash line’, China has so far claimed the largest part of the territory as theirs. It stretches hundreds of miles south and east from Hainan, the country’s most southerly province.

The US has warned China not to `elbow aside’ those countries involved in the claim.

“Through island building and navy patrols, China is strongly claiming the area as theirs, but the United States is saying they are opposing all restriction on freedom of navigation and unlawful sovereignty claims by all countries in the area,” said Freeman.

Mainly uninhabited, Paracels and the Spratlys have rich natural resources although there has been very little detailed exploration of the areas that lies in a major shipping route in the South China Sea.