- Chinese Premier’s Call to Avoid a New Cold War
- Focus on South China Sea Conflict
- Challenges in ASEAN’s Approach to China
Chinese Premier Li Qiang stated on Wednesday that it is essential to avoid a “new Cold War” when resolving international conflicts, as world leaders convened in Indonesia amidst intensifying geopolitical rivalries in the Indo-Pacific region.
Li stated at an annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, Japan, and South Korea that countries must “appropriately handle differences and disputes”.
“At present, it is very important to oppose taking sides, bloc confrontation, and a new Cold War,” Li told the meeting.
ASEAN, which has warned of the risk of becoming entangled in disputes between major powers, is also holding broader discussions with Li, US Vice President Kamala Harris, and the leaders of various partner nations, including Japan, South Korea, Australia, and India.
Presidents Joe Biden of the United States and Xi Jinping of China are not attending the summit.
Concern over China’s increasingly assertive behavior in the South China Sea, an important trade corridor in which several Asean members have claimed that conflict with China, tops the agenda at the meetings in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia.
Asean and China discussed accelerating negotiations on a long-discussed code of conduct for the waterway this week, according to Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, who chairs Asean.
During an Asean-Japan summit, leaders “expressed the importance of maintaining conducive conditions in the region, particularly on the Korean Peninsula and in the South China Sea,” she said.
The United States and its allies have echoed Asean’s calls for freedom of navigation and overflight and to refrain from establishing a physical presence in disputed waters.
China has constructed numerous facilities, including runways, on small sea cliffs.
“The vice president will highlight the United States and Asean’s shared interest in upholding the rules-based international order, including in the South China Sea,” a White House official said Tuesday.
Just before this week’s meetings, China released a map with a “10-dash line” indicating what appeared to be an expansion of the territory it claims in the South China Sea.
Several members of Asean rejected the map.
“Great peril”
Some members of the Southeast Asian group have developed close diplomatic, commercial, and military ties with China, whereas others are more cautious.
The United States has also, with varying degrees of success, courted Asean nations.
In a draught of a statement it will issue this week, seen by Reuters, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) said it needed to “strengthen maritime stability in our region… and explore new initiatives towards these ends.”
Lina Alexandra, a political analyst at the think tank CSIS, stated that the draught was “very weak on the issues of the South China Sea” and that the Philippines was losing patience with Asean when it came to coping with China’s presence in the region.
“If Asean is not useful that is a great danger, because the other option is they go up to the big powers and they bring these big powers to the region,” Alexandra said.
A source familiar with the situation confirmed the draught.
At the summit, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol also pledged to work with Japan and China to expedite the resumption of three-way talks aimed at improving relations.
Yoon stated that all military cooperation with North Korea must cease immediately, citing a report that its leader, Kim Jong Un, will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss supplying Russia with weapons for the conflict in Ukraine.
Asean’s ten members conducted their summit earlier this week, with leaders seeking to assert the bloc’s relevance in the face of criticism that it has failed to press Myanmar’s military leaders to cooperate on a peace plan for their war-torn nation.
Since the generals toppled an elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi in early 2021, Myanmar, an Asean member, has been plagued by violence.
