Australia, ASEAN warn against confrontation in southern China

The 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations has urged all parties operating in the increasingly volatile South China Sea to remain calm.

ASEAN and Australia made the request in a joint statement on Wednesday at the end of a three-day summit in Melbourne. The summit commemorated the 50th anniversary of the establishment of formal relations between Australia and ASEAN.

The statement said Australia and ASEAN “recognize the benefits of the South China Sea becoming a sea of ​​peace, stability and prosperity” and encourage “all countries to avoid any unilateral actions that may threaten these aspects.”

But the statement did not directly accuse China of its numerous confrontations with other countries in the region. The latest incident occurred near Second Thomas Shoal on Tuesday, when two Philippine Coast Guard vessels faced off against a Chinese Coast Guard vessel.

Manila said one of the vessels collided with a Chinese vessel during a “dangerous” interception exercise, causing damage, while four coast guard personnel on board another Philippine vessel were hit by water cannon from a Chinese coast guard vessel Injuried.

The two Philippine ships were escorting two civilian vessels carrying supplies and a new troop rotation to a Philippine warship that had been deliberately stranded on Second Thomas Shoal to maintain the archipelago’s claim to the underwater reef.

China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, ignoring competing claims from regional neighbors such as the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Beijing and Manila are locked in a fierce standoff over the Scarborough Shoal issue. Scarborough Shoal is a fishery-rich atoll that was occupied by China in 2012 despite being within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.

An international arbitration tribunal in The Hague said in 2016 that China’s claims had no legal basis, but Beijing rejected that decision.

Some information for this report comes from the Associated Press, Reuters, and AFP.