The 45th AMM Ends with Over 100 Consensuses

AKP Phnom Penh, July 13, 2012 —

The 45th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM) and related meetings this morning concluded with more than 100 consensuses, except that on the South China Sea issue, H.E. Hor Namhong, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said at the press conference held here at noon following the closing ceremony of the 45th AMM.

The 45th AMM and other related meetings in Phnom Penh ended without a joint declaration, but the ASEAN members will move forward for more cooperation and the ASEAN Community Building, he underlined.

“The South China Sea is just an issue between some ASEAN member countries and China, so ASEAN will continue to work together for the ASEAN Community Building,” said H.E. Hor Namhong, also Chair of the 45th AMM.

According to H.E. Hor Namhong, the meetings were not under the domination of the bilateral disputes, ASEAN should not take the joint declaration as the hostage of the South China Sea dispute. It is only the bilateral dispute between some of the ASEAN members and China.

ASEAN is not the court to rule who wins and loses, we want all concerned parties to implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), as well as other international laws, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) concluded in 1982, he said.

By KHAN Sophirom