22 May 2024
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- RSIS Publications
- RSIS Publications
RSIS Publications
The author's views are their own and do not represent the official position of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, NTU. These commentaries may be reproduced with prior permission from RSIS and due recognition to the authors and RSIS. Please email to Editor IDSS Paper at [email protected].
ASEAN has taken a collective position on the South China Sea disputes. This is centred on several long-held principles, including freedom of navigation, peaceful resolution of disputes, and full respect for legal and diplomatic processes. For the first time, ASEAN foreign ministers, in a statement released on 30 December 2023, expressed “concern [for] the recent developments in the South China Sea” and made a strong call “to restore and enhance mutual trust and confidence as well as exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability” in the South China Sea.
China’s aggressive determination to assert its interest in regional waters has led its Southeast Asian neighbours, a group of small and medium states, to seek out options that can balance the asymmetry between China and ASEAN in terms of power and size. China probably does not realise that it is its own assertive approach that pushed the tension in the South China Sea beyond the complex competing territorial and maritime disputes between the claimants.
Last updated on 25/06/2024
ASEAN has taken a collective position on the South China Sea disputes. This is centred on several long-held principles, including freedom of navigation, peaceful resolution of disputes, and full respect for legal and diplomatic processes. For the first time, ASEAN foreign ministers, in a statement released on 30 December 2023, expressed “concern [for] the recent developments in the South China Sea” and made a strong call “to restore and enhance mutual trust and confidence as well as exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability” in the South China Sea.
China’s aggressive determination to assert its interest in regional waters has led its Southeast Asian neighbours, a group of small and medium states, to seek out options that can balance the asymmetry between China and ASEAN in terms of power and size. China probably does not realise that it is its own assertive approach that pushed the tension in the South China Sea beyond the complex competing territorial and maritime disputes between the claimants.
Last updated on 25/06/2024
