What had long been considered as a strong, peaceful alliance among nations seemed to crumble in Cambodia.
At the close of the 45th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, recently, Philippine officials and political observers were flabbergasted at what is a historical first for the body: The foreign ministers, after a battle of words, failed to come up with a Joint Communique, which traditionally wraps up the foreign ministers’ private deliberations in a commonly accepted summation.
There was, in other words, no consensus reached over the most sensitive issue transpiring on the Asean seas: China’s claim of sovereignty against that of four Asean nations.
In reaction, a July 13 statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) went: “The Philippines takes strong exception to the statement made by the Chair of the Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting that this will be ‘the first time that Asean is not able to issue the Joint Communique due to bilateral conflict between some Asean Member States and a neighboring country.’”
Chairing the 2012 Asean meeting was Cambodia, which has strong ties with China, the latter being its largest foreign investor.
On that special meeting on the draft of the supposed Joint Communique, the DFA relates that “several Asean Member-States and the Asean Secretariat supported the Philippine position that the fact that the Scarborough Shoal (Bajo de Masinloc) issue was discussed in the Ministerial Meeting should be reflected in the Joint Communique.”
The Chair, however, refused the suggestion of acknowledging the issue with the Scarborough Shoal, in apparent (though undeclared) support of Beijing’s wishes. The Philippines, represented by DFA Secretary  Albert del Rosario, refused to cave in. At the end of that “stand-off,” the Joint Communique failed to be issued.
Aside from the Philippines and Cambodia, members of the Asean are Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Over the past year, tensions had developed between China and four Asean member-countries — Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam — on territorial claims over parts of South China Sea, which China is claiming wholly as part of its territory.
This was another sore point during the Asean meetings. The Philippines argued against describing the issue as a “bilateral conflict” when in fact it is “multilateral” as four countries are in fact involved in the dispute against China.
China’s insistence on conducting bilateral talks is not sitting well with the Philippines, which wants the  “the provisions of the 1982 UNCLoS related to the exclusive economic zone and continental shelves of coastal states” respected by all parties concerned.
But for our giant neighbor, its claim is “indisputable.” In other words, the message being imparted is that not one of the four Asean countries involved should dare question its claim to the whole South China Sea, which the Philippines calls the West Philippine Sea. Indeed, its actions have come to be regarded as bullying, where China has had no compunction at showing its size and might.
Consider the latest development, as of this writing, as reported by AFP on yahoo.com: China, “amid tensions with its neighbors over rival claims to the area,” has sent a fleet of 30 fishing vessels, said to be the “largest ever launched from the province,” at the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
The report added: “The Philippines and Vietnam have complained that China is becoming increasingly aggressive in its actions in the area — such as harassing fishermen — and also through bullying diplomatic tactics.”
Donald Emmerson, in a report in Asia Online News, observes: “In Beijing’s view, Asean has no business trying to resolve the disputes over the South China Sea, which can only be settled bilaterally between China and each of the four Southeast Asian claimants, and only when the time has come for that to occur. In this context, by refusing to issue a communique, Cambodia appears to have done what China would have wanted it to do.”
In the wake of the furor over the Asean meetings’ unusual conclusion, Emmerson wonders, “How badly has the rift in Phnom Penh damaged Asean’s ability to sponsor a binding code governing state behavior in the South China Sea?”
After what happened, he further poses, Asean’s “unified front” is in question, weakening some of its member-countries’ position against China’s aggressive claim.