Aquino to raise sea row in Asean

NAYPYITAW, Burma—President Aquino will meet with his counterparts from major security allies Japan and Australia on the sidelines of the two-day 25th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit opening Wednesday where he is expected to talk about China’s intrusions in the West Philippine Sea.

The President is scheduled to meet one-on-one with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Wednesday afternoon. He is to meet later with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

The Philippines has received strong support from Japan and Australia in maritime security cooperation and capability enhancement.

Japan also has a territorial dispute with China over the Senkaku islands (which the Chinese call the Diaoyu islands) in the East China Sea, while Australia has voiced concern over the maritime dispute in the South China Sea.

Aquino met with Abe on June 24, at the height of tension over China’s insistence on claiming the entire South China Sea.

The dispute with China and the upcoming Asean economic integration are uppermost in the President’s agenda for the Asean summit in Burma (Myanmar).

This is the first time the President will sit down at the biennial Asean summit with leaders of other rival claimants of areas in the South China Sea—China, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei (Taiwan is not an Asean partner)—since the Philippines in March formally challenged China’s claim in an arbitral tribunal based in The Hague.

The Philippines has underscored peaceful means and respect for international law to settle the dispute in the face of the intrusion of Chinese ships into the country’s 370-kilometer exclusive economic zone.

The President is also expected to tackle with fellow leaders the threat of the Ebola outbreak, climate change mitigation and global security concerns during the Asean summit and the 9th East Asia Summit that will follow.

Straight from Beijing

The 18 world leaders who will participate in meetings here started to arrive Tuesday night, fresh from the two-day 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Beijing.

Aquino was due to arrive at 11 p.m. last night in this new Burmese capital. This left him barely 10 hours to rest and prepare for daylong meetings for two days with his counterparts in the 10-member Asean and their 10 dialogue partners.

The first day will be capped by gala dinner hosted by Burmese President Thein Sein at the Myanmar International Convention Center, the summit venue.

The second day will open with the East Asia Summit among Asean members Philippines, Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia with the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Russia.

The President will fly back to Manila on Thursday after a brief meet and greet with about two dozen overseas Filipino workers in his sprawling villa in the Horizon Lake View Hotel compound in Naypyitaw.

Philippine Ambassador to Burma Alex Chua said the President would discuss with his Asean counterparts the “barriers and preparations” for the Asean economic integration that would start next year.

At the East Asia summit, the President will discuss international and regional “security concerns,” he added. “I expect that nontraditional issues such as climate change, Ebola outbreak and evolving regional security architecture will be high on the agenda,” Chua said.