Defence ministers’ meeting opens in Hanoi

HANOI - A meeting of defence ministers from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) along with eight other countries opened Monday in Hanoi in the shadow of territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

The ASEAN Defence Ministerial Meeting Plus includes the 10 ASEAN member states as well as China, the US, Japan, South Korea, India, Russia, Australia and New Zealand.

Host nation Vietnam said the meeting will focus on shared interests, but observers are watching for clues to relations between the US, China, Japan, and Vietnam, which have been strained recently by maritime territorial disputes.

ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan called the talks important for resolving disputes in the South China Sea. Beijing has recently intensified its claims to maritime territories also claimed by Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei and Taiwan.

ASEAN “must demonstrate to the world that we can manage our own challenges”, Pitsuwan said.

Several nations used Monday for bilateral side discussions. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates was scheduled to meet with his counterparts from Japan, Vietnam and China.

Chinese Defence Minister Liang Guanglie was scheduled to meet with his Vietnamese counterpart, as well as with Gates.

The general meeting was scheduled for Tuesday. Vietnamese Deputy Defence Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh, who chairs the meeting, said last week that the South China Sea dispute was “not on the agenda”.

Vinh said ASEAN would not allow the meeting to devolve into a “war of words”.