Cambodia Criticized for Asean Meeting Failure
The “one community, one destiny” motto Cambodia adopted when it took over the rotating chairmanship of Asean this year could not have sounded more hollow as it did Friday when the 10-member bloc failed to produce a joint closing statement for the first time in the meeting’s 45-year history. Tension simmered throughout the week of meetings in Phnom Penh, and on Friday, Cambodia and the Philippines slammed each other when a flurry of last-ditch meetings centered on the South China Sea issue failed to produce a consensus. The failure to adopt even a closing statement casts doubt on the prospect that a divided Asean will ever get China to sign up to a Code of Conduct (COC) on disputes over the South China Sea, through which passes roughly half the world’s shipping by weight. …
