Day: November 15, 2021

 

China has welcomed what it called Russia’s “deep friendship” after President Vladimir Putin called for disputes in the South China Sea to be resolved by countries in the region without interference from “non-regional powers.”

Putin didn’t name any particular “powers” in his comments at a conference in Moscow on Wednesday but appeared to be alluding to the United States.

China on Thursday described Putin’s remarks as “positive.” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told a press briefing in Beijing that “the deep friendship between President Xi (Jinping) and President Putin is built on a high degree of mutual trust.”

“China believes that no matter how the international situations evolve, China-Russia relations will stay on the right course,” Zhao said.

Putin spoke at the Russian Energy Week conference in Moscow. He also commented about the tensions between China and Taiwan, saying China did not need to use force.

On the South China Sea, the Russian president said that there are “oppositely directed interests” but Russia’s position is that “we need to allow all regional countries, without interference from non-regional powers, to resolve all emerging disputable issues calmly through negotiations, based on fundamental norms of the international law.”

“In my opinion, there’s a potential for that but it’s not been played out yet,” he said.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam contest China’s claim to almost the entire sea. China’s says it has ‘historic rights’ to the area, a position unsupported by international law.

For its part, China has been criticizing the U.S. involvement in the region, including the Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy, which has seen Washington and key allies step up their naval presence in the South China Sea.

China has also been critical of the recent announcement of the three-nation defense pact AUKUS between Australia, the U.S., and the United Kingdom, saying it would destabilize and stoke an arms race in the Indo-Pacific.

Neutral position

Russia has been maintaining a neutral position in the matters related to the South China Sea, said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the Russia in Global Affairs journal.

“Russia doesn’t want to be involved in the South China Sea disputes and tries to keep distance,” Lukyanov added.

However Ian Storey, senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, warned that “while Moscow has been broadly supportive of China’s position, Beijing’s jurisdictional claims threaten Russia’s lucrative energy interests in Southeast Asia.”

Three Russian state-owned energy companies including Zarubezhneft, Gazprom and Rosneft have been involved in a number of oil and gas projects in the South China Sea. Their operations have all reportedly come under pressure from Beijing.

Rosneft’s and Zarubezhneft’s drilling activities have been obstructed by Chinese vessels.

Most recently, two appraisal wells drilled by Zarubezhneft and its partner Harbour Energy in Indonesia’s Natuna Sea have been encircled by Chinese coastguard ships accompanying the survey vessel Haiyang Dizhi 10.

According to Storey, China has also been pushing two provisions into the draft text of a Code of Conduct (COC) for the South China Sea that Beijing is negotiating with the 10-nation Southeast Asian bloc, ASEAN, which potentially will cut Russia out of energy projects in the region.

One of them stipulates that “only energy companies from China and Southeast Asia should undertake joint offshore energy development” in the South China Sea; the other asks that “none of the 11 parties to the COC should undertake military exercises with a foreign navy in the South China Sea without the prior consent of all parties.”

“I don’t think Southeast Asian countries will agree to either of these provisions though,” Storey said.

Still, until now Russia’s stance remains “the less engagement in South China Sea disputes, the safer (the) future for Russian economic interests,” according to Lukyanov. And it is yet to be seen whether those disputes will reach the boiling point that forces Kremlin to take action.

Taiwan ‘reunification’

At the same session, the Russian president also commented on Chinese leader Xi’s remark last Saturday that “reunification” with Taiwan “must be fulfilled,” and by peaceful means.

China regards the democratic island as a breakaway province and vows to bring it under Beijing’s control. Taiwan however sees itself as a sovereign state.

Cross-strait tensions have heightened in recent weeks, with China sending a record number of military jets into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) ahead of the island’s national day on Oct. 10.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ying-wen responded by saying her government would seek to bolster the island’s military capabilities in order to “defend ourselves”.

Vladimir Putin when speaking about Taiwan said that China “does not need to use force.”

This year, Russia and China celebrate the 20th anniversary of their 2001 Treaty of Good Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation. Earlier this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated Russia’s stance, that “just like the overwhelming majority of other countries, Russia views Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China”.

Putin suggested that Taiwan poses no threats to China.

“China is a great, powerful economy and in terms of purchasing power, China has become the number one economy in the world, ahead of the United States,” he said at the Energy Week in Moscow.

“Building up this economic potential, China is capable to achieve its national objectives. I don’t see any threat here,” the Russian president concluded.

 

Copyright © 1998-2016, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036Radio Free Europe–Copyright (c) 2015. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Southeast Asian foreign ministers decided on Friday not to allow the Burmese junta chief to attend an upcoming ASEAN summit, an Indonesian diplomat said about a rare move by the regional bloc, which has been criticized for its collective dithering in response to post-coup Myanmar.

The top diplomats of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations took the decision at an emergency virtual meeting, after Myanmar’s military government this week backtracked on allowing ASEAN’s special envoy to meet with all parties in the country, including jailed opposition leaders.

After Friday’s meeting, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said that ASEAN member Myanmar had made no progress in implementing the bloc’s five-point roadmap to putting the country back on a path to peace and democracy.

“Indonesia proposed [that] the participation of Myanmar at the summits should not be represented at the political level until Myanmar restores its democracy through an inclusive process,” Retno said in a message posted on Twitter.

BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service, asked Ade Padmo Sarwono, Indonesia’s envoy to ASEAN, whether the bloc’s members had decided against inviting Senior Gen, Min Aung Hlaing – the Burmese junta chief – to the Oct. 26-28 summit.

“Read Retno’s tweet,” he replied.

BenarNews asked him whether other ASEAN members had the same position as Retno’s.

“Yes,” he answered.

In the hours before the region’s top diplomats huddled for their emergency meeting, Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah warned that Kuala Lumpur would press to have Min Aung Hlaing excluded from the summit, if needed.

“Malaysia’s stand is clear and I will repeat that if there is no significant progress in the implementation of the five-point consensus, the junta chief helming the nation should not be invited to the ASEAN summit,” he told reporters.

The junta leader had agreed to the consensus at an April meeting in Jakarta that was called to discuss the situation in Myanmar after he led the military in a Feb. 1 coup that toppled an elected government.

Min Aung Hlaing has tested other ASEAN members’ patience since leading the coup and throwing Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of the National League for Democracy government in jail. During the more than eight months since, Burmese security forces have killed close to 1,180 people, mostly anti-coup protesters.

ASEAN was finally pushed to deliver its sharpest response to the Myanmar junta. The 10-member bloc did not immediately issue a statement after the Friday meeting, but one was expected on Saturday.

Several news sites on Friday, citing unnamed sources, corroborated what the Indonesian diplomat Ade said. Some media outlets said that Wunna Maung Lwin, the junta-appointed foreign minister, attended Friday’s meeting.

Some news agencies, also citing unnamed sources, said ASEAN would invite a “non-political figure” to represent Myanmar at the meeting.

The emergency meeting of foreign ministers was called by Brunei, which currently holds the bloc’s revolving chairmanship.

Until now, Myanmar military-appointed officials have participated in all ASEAN sub-meetings since the coup. The junta has also splashed photographs of these virtual ASEAN gatherings on state media and social media, all in an attempt to gain legitimacy.

Political analysts and rights groups had said that was tantamount to recognizing the military government.

Credibility gap

For this reason and for its legendary delays in arriving at decisions, ASEAN was on the verge of losing credibility.

This was “the cost of its dithering and indecision on the complex and fast-evolving geopolitical environment,” former Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa recently told The Jakarta Post.

The regional bloc works by consensus, which is why critics have called it ineffective. Some diplomats in the region had said that Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand were blocking taking stern action against the Myanmar junta.

It took the bloc more than a hundred days to agree on who would be special envoy to Myanmar. During that time, ASEAN also watered down a United Nations resolution calling for an arms embargo on Myanmar.

Throughout this period of indecision, Burmese security forces continued to shoot at and kill anti-coup protesters.

On Thursday, two analysts told BenarNews that they did not think ASEAN member-states would agree to block Min Aung Hlaing from the summit – or at least not agree on this at the emergency meeting.

Still, it was clear during the past two weeks that Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines were against allowing the leader of the Myanmar coup into the summit because he was not cooperating with ASEAN envoy to Myanmar Erywan Yusof.

Meanwhile, a host of countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, on Friday issued a “Joint Statement of Support for the Special Envoy of the ASEAN Chair on Myanmar.”

They said they “are committed to supporting his efforts to facilitate Myanmar’s full and urgent implementation of the five-point consensus, as decided by ASEAN leaders and the Commander in Chief of the Myanmar military.”

“We emphasize support for the objectives of Dato Erywan’s visit, including his intention to meet all parties in line with the Five-Point Consensus, and call on the regime to facilitate his access. We reiterate our support for the Special Envoy role going forward, and stand ready to support ASEAN’s efforts across Chairs,” the statement said.

ASEAN’s decisive move, after months, to deliver its sharpest rebuke to the Myanmar junta won plaudits from some analysts and on social media.

Simon Adams, president of the Center for Victims of Torture, an organization that treats torture survivors and does human rights advocacy, called it “a good decision by ASEAN” to not allow the junta chief into the summit.

“A junta that is responsible for shooting down protesters, mass arrests and overseeing the torture of detainees should not be allowed to pretend that it has diplomatic credibility,” said Adams.

“Myanmar’s generals belong in handcuffs not at ASEAN meetings. It’s time for ASEAN to give the 5-point consensus some teeth.”

Mizanur Rahman, commissioner of the Bangladesh Securities & Exchange Commission, said on Twitter: “ASEAN seems to have exceeded my expectations.”

The Civil Disobedience Movement, led by professionals in Myanmar, thanked ASEAN.

“You made the right decision not to invite treasoner-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing. He committed treason against the country and he is a terrorist,” the group said in a tweet.

“He doesn’t deserve to be sitting at the ASEAN meeting.”

 

 

 

Copyright © 1998-2016, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036Radio Free Europe–Copyright (c) 2015. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.