UN PCA ruling helps disputants worldwide

ANALYSTS have criticized the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) for doing China’s bidding, which was championed by Cambodia, China’s agent country in Asean, to disregard the UNCLOS Tribunal’s landmark ruling granting the Philippine petition against China’s takeover of the Philippine territories in the South China/West Philippine Sea and ordering China to stop its aggressive activities.

Some of the analysts also warned that Asean’s “watered-down” statement at the end of the group’s foreign ministers summit in Cambodia “could diminish the grouping’s already waning clout.”