Kyodo News
02 June 2016
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- South China Sea Feud to Dominate Asian Security Meeting in Singapore
South China Sea Feud to Dominate Asian Security Meeting in Singapore
Security experts expect the South China Sea territorial conflict to take center stage at an annual high-powered international gathering of defense ministers and top military officials in Singapore this weekend.
The three-day Asia Security Summit organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies and also known as the Shangri-La Dialogue could see a furious debate on the implications of the much-awaited ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on the Philippines’ case against China in the contested waters, the experts told Kyodo News.
“The South China Sea will be front and center at SLD. Delegates will be anticipating the ruling from the PCA, and how the two parties — China and the Philippines — will respond to it,” said Ian Storey, a researcher at the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.
Collin Koh from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, a Singapore think tank, said the concerned parties are likely “to use such an international high-profile platform to air their views and wrestle for public opinion.”
“If we have seen what China, the Philippines and so on are doing these days, it’s clear that the public relations drive is on, furiously, especially from Beijing’s side,” he said.
IDSS / Online
