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Malaysia
This Week in AsiaPolitics

What’s Malaysia’s stance on the South China Sea? Latest remarks raise potential shift

  • Comments from Malaysia’s foreign minister and its decision to join a Chinese-led regional bloc raised concerns about its neutral foreign policy

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Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan’s recent comments on the South China Sea and Kuala Lumpur’s decision to join a Chinese-led regional bloc, raised concerns about its neutral foreign policy. Photo: AFP
Maria Siow
Malaysia’s recent comments on the South China Sea – widely seen as closely aligned with Beijing’s – have raised concerns about Kuala Lumpur’s neutral foreign policy stance and how it may evolve ahead of its role as Asean chair next year.
During the 57th Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Laos last week, Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan emphasised honouring international and maritime law to minimise external powers’ influence in the South China Sea. He also called for Asean countries to resolve territorial disputes through negotiations and dialogue, without relying on external help.

“It is better for issues within Asean and the Southeast Asian region to be resolved through negotiations and dialogue among the countries themselves,” the minister said, adding that external influence would lead to “uncertainty” in the region.

Even though no country was named, the remarks are widely seen as referring to the Philippines, who in recent months has stepped up military and security cooperation with countries such as the United States, Japan and Australia to counter confrontations with Beijing in the South China Sea.

Tensions between China and the Philippines have escalated in recent months, leading to clashes in the disputed area, including an “intentional-high speed ramming” by a Chinese Coast Guard ship on June 17, in which a Filipino sailor suffered serious injury.

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Chinese and Philippine ships clash in first incident under Beijing’s new coast guard law

Chinese and Philippine ships clash in first incident under Beijing’s new coast guard law

Sharon Seah, coordinator of the Asean Studies Centre at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said there was great “frustration” from the Philippines at the drafting of last week’s ministerial meeting joint communique as Manila’s attempts to reflect the ramming incident were rejected by Asean, particularly Cambodia and the Asean chair Laos.

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