The comments of two senior Singaporean diplomats shocked a senior Chinese official in Jakarta on Monday that China was splitting Asean in reaching a consensus with three Asean states on the South China Sea.
The Singapore diplomats made the remarks at a conference in Jakarta after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last Saturday announced a four-point consensus with Brunei, Laos and Cambodia on the South China Sea, including that territorial disputes in the sea were “not an issue between China and Asean as a whole”.
According to Vice-Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin, each Asean state has its own sovereign rights and China will “never want to split up” the regional grouping.
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