Southeast Asian nations scrambled on Thursday to hide their divisions over China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea and a related international legal ruling that is stoking tensions between Beijing and Washington.
The 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations concluded a regional summit with no mention of July’s landmark verdict by a tribunal in The Hague against Beijing’s assertion of rights over most of the South China Sea.
US President Barack Obama and China’s premier, Li Keqiang, also weighed in as the meeting in the Laos capital of Vientiane reached its climax, underscoring the obstacles to quelling tensions over Beijing’s expansion in Asia’s seas.