Southeast Asian nations yesterday expressed serious concern about growing international tension over disputed waters in the South China Sea.
China claims most of the sea, but Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Vietnam have rival claims to all or portions of the region. Friction has increased over China’s recent deployment of missiles and fighter jets to the disputed Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島).
“Ministers remained seriously concerned over recent and ongoing developments,” 10-member ASEAN said in a statement after a regular meeting of the group’s foreign ministers in Laos.
Land reclamation and escalating activity has increased tensions and could undermine peace, security and stability in the region, ASEAN said in the statement.
The US has criticized China’s building of artificial islands and facilities in the sea and has sailed warships close to disputed territory to assert the right to freedom of navigation.
The White House on Friday pressed Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to expand his non-militarization pledge to cover the entire South China Sea.
During a state visit to the US in September last year, Xi insisted that “China does not intend to pursue militarization” in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島).
“We think it would be good if that non-militarization pledge, if he [Xi] would extend that across the entire South China Sea,” US National Security Council Senior Director for Asian Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink told a forum at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “We’re going to encourage our Chinese friends and other countries in the region to refrain from taking steps that raise tensions.”
Vietnam, which accused China of violating its sovereignty with the missile deployment, yesterday echoed the US call.
“We call for non-militarization in the South China Sea,” Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh told reporters after meeting with his ASEAN colleagues.
The group agreed to seek a meeting between China and ASEAN’s foreign ministers to discuss the South China Sea and other issues, Cambodian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Hor Namhong said.
China’s maritime claims are ASEAN’s most contentious issue, as its members struggle to balance mutual support with their growing economic relations with Beijing. China is the biggest trade partner for many ASEAN nations.
Vietnam and China compete for influence over landlocked Laos, which has no maritime claims, but finds itself in the difficult position of dealing with neighbors at odds over the South China Sea. Laos is tasked with finding common ground on the issue as the ASEAN chair this year.
Laotian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Thongloun Sisoulith, who is to take office as prime minister next month, played down the challenge.
“We are a close friend of Vietnam and China. We try to solve problems in a friendly way,” he told reporters yesterday. “We are in the middle, but it’s not a problem.”
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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