Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said continuous, constructive, and sustained engagement remains vital among major global powers despite the absence of a joint statement at the recently concluded East Asia Summit (EAS).
00:00Thank you, Dato Sri. Aaron Connolly from The Economist. I just wanted to ask you about the East Asia Summit yesterday. I understand that there will be no joint statement from the East Asia Summit because there could be no consensus reached and that the United States blocked that joint statement.
00:20I just wondered if you could talk to us a little bit about Malaysia's efforts to try and bridge the differences between, say, Russia, the United States, China, and why that joint statement didn't come out. Thank you.
00:34Notwithstanding what you have said, this is one forum where Russia was present, Myanmar was present, United States, China, and all the elements take place.
00:47You don't have regional meetings with their presence. Some meetings, if Myanmar comes in, the Europeans get out. Some meetings, if Russia is coming in, the others will not participate.
01:01But in the ASEAN-sponsored East Asia Summit, at least there's preparedness to engage and listen. They may agree, they may disagree, but that's the position taken.
01:11And the consensus within ASEAN is to ensure that there is engagement. We should not stop engaging.
01:20And then secondly, peace is to us critical. So, if you say there is, there are issues, for example, there was no clarity in terms of South China Sea, for example, the issue.
01:39I disagree. I disagree. I disagree. Because we all agree. ASEAN countries say, based on the code of conduct.
01:50Premier Li Chiang responded to say, yes, we should facilitate and accelerate the process and agreement on the code of conduct.
02:00ASEAN Korea, ASEAN and all the relevant parties all agree that this region should not be an area of contestation of superpowers.
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