ASEAN Declines To Join In New SCS Dispute

In recent weeks, there has been a stepped-up exchange of words between officials of the United States and China on the South China Sea.

In the wake of the 4th anniversary of the 2016 ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague rejecting China’s territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, “We are making clear: Beijing’s claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful.”

He added: “We will support countries all across the world who recognize that China has violated their legal territorial claims and maritime claims as well…. We will provide them the assistance we can, whether that’s in multilateral bodies, whether that’s in ASEAN, whether that’s through legal responses. We will use all the tools we can….”