By Martin ABBUGAO, Annabel SYMINGTON
Southeast Asian nations were deadlocked Sunday about how to confront China's territorial claims in the South China Sea as pressure from Beijing again drove a wedge between countries on the region's toughest security challenge.
Their gathering in the Laos capital is the first time regional players -- including China and the United States -- have met en masse since a UN-backed tribunal delivered a hammer blow to Beijing's claim to vast stretches of the sea.
The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) boasts four countries who have competing claims with Beijing to parts of the sea, and is fiercely divided on the issue.
Rival claimants have accused China of deftly forging alliances with smaller member countries like Laos, this year's host, and Cambodia through aid and loans to divide the once consensus-driven bloc.
Chinese pressure was blamed last month for a startling show of ASEAN discord when countries swiftly disavowed a joint statement released by Malaysia after an ASEAN-China meeting.
That statement had expressed alarm over Beijing's activities in the South China Sea. Cambodia and Laos were later fingered as being behind moves to block it.
Those divisions were on stark display once more in Vientiane on Sunday as regional foreign ministers met for talks.
Read the full story at SpaceDaily