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G-7, ASEAN declare ‘shared interest’ in Free and Open Indo-Pacific

Radio Free Asia

The Group of Seven industrialized nations in December 2021 voiced concern over tensions in the South China Sea and declared “shared interest in maintaining a Free and Open Indo-Pacific region” after an inaugural meeting of G-7 foreign ministers with their counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The top diplomats of the G-7 member nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States — gathered in Liverpool, England, for a meeting hosted by the U.K., which is the G-7’s current chair.

In a statement following their joint videoconference, the U.K. said the G-7 and the 10-member ASEAN discussed the situation in the South China Sea, and “concerns were expressed on the land reclamations, activities, serious incidents in the area, including damage to the marine environment, which have eroded trust and confidence, increased tensions, and may undermine peace, security, and stability in the region.” The statement did not name any specific country.

The People’s Republic of China (PRC), which has been accused of such activities, was not invited to the meeting and did not immediately respond to the statement.

The participants called for “an effective and substantive Code of Conduct in the South China Sea that is in accordance with international law, including the 1982 UNCLOS [United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea].”

Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia, said the meeting was held at the U.K.’s initiative and could reflect the direction of U.K. foreign policy.

“It was the United Kingdom exercising its prerogative as the chair of the G-7 and that it has its own independent policy toward the Indo-Pacific,” Thayer said.

In March 2021, the U.K. government outlined its security, defense, development and foreign policy for the next two decades. Observers say there was a clear “tilt to the Indo-Pacific.” In mid-2021, the U.K.’s new flagship aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, deployed for the first time to the South China Sea.

U.K. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the deployment demonstrated “British power and commitment at sea, in the skies and over the land” while furthering the U.K.’s interests and strengthening its partnerships.

Soon after, the U.K. joined Australia and the U.S. in a new security pact known as AUKUS, through which Australia will develop nuclear-powered submarines with assistance from the other partners. Australia will remain a nonnuclear weapons state.

Meanwhile, in a move likely to annoy the PRC, a U.K. oil and gas company has announced that a production plan is being developed after successful drilling off Indonesia.

Harbour Energy said in early December 2021 that an appraisal drilling campaign in Natuna Sea Block A and Tuna Block would be “supporting future production.”

Harbour did not provide details, but Indonesian media quoted Benny Lubiantara, deputy planning officer of the government’s special task force for upstream oil and gas business activities, as saying that his department and the company, which operates under the name Premier Oil in Indonesia, would begin discussing a proposed development plan in January 2022.

“In addition to increasing national oil and gas reserves, these findings also emphasize the territorial sovereignty of the Republic of Indonesia,” he said.

Earlier in December, an Indonesian lawmaker revealed that Beijing had demanded that Indonesia stop oil and gas drilling in Tuna Block.

The area is inside Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone, about 10 nautical miles from the Indonesia-Vietnam maritime border, but it overlaps with the nine-dash line that Beijing uses to demarcate its widely rejected territorial claims in the South China Sea.

During September and October 2021, the Chinese survey ship Haiyang Dizhi 10 conducted maritime seabed surveys near Tuna Block despite protests by Indonesian agencies.

 

IMAGE CREDIT: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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