JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – Southeast Asian leaders made little headway Sunday in helping Thailand and Cambodia end a deadly border dispute that could undermine peace and stability in the region as it pushes for economic integration.The prime ministers of the two feuding nations held talks Sunday -- mediated by Indonesia's president -- as part of efforts to hammer out a lasting cease-fire.
But neither seemed in any mood to back down.
"There's no conclusion," Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya told reporters after the trilateral meeting, providing no details. "We'll need further talks after this."
Other topics discussed in the two-day Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, summit included Myanmar's bid to take over the rotating chair of the regional grouping in 2014-- something that appeared likely despite lingering concerns about human rights abuses, according to a draft statement seen by the Associated Press.
Spiraling food and energy prices and security in the South China Sea also were also on the table.
The main maritime dispute is over the potentially oil-rich Spratly islands, claimed in whole or in part by China and four ASEAN members --Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, and Vietnam.
The smaller nations, together with the U.S., worry that China may use its military might to seize the area outright or assume de facto control with naval patrols.
That could threaten one of the world's busiest commercial sea lanes.
"We deemed the South China Sea issue, in all its various dimensions, as having the potential to undermine the stability of our region," according to the draft ASEAN statement.
Member countries agreed to work toward ending a nine-year disagreement with China that has blocked completion of guidelines for an accord aimed at preventing armed conflicts over the disputed islands, it said.
Those guidelines would allow all the claimant nations to pursue joint development projects to ease tensions in the South China Sea region.
The annual meeting between leaders of the 10-member regional grouping was supposed to focus on steps needed to create an integrated regional economic zone by 2015. More
Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)
The only thing that can be added to this intractable story is that border disputes between these neighbors extend back to pre-Buddhist times. While Buddhism and the reign of Buddhist kings may have helped these two great kingdoms (even through the period Cambodia was the magnificent Khmer empire), it has not been enough to end the greed that makes kings and tribes rapacious and vindictive. Land is held because of natural borders, power, and the ambition of rulers. While that may led to peaceful coexistence for some time, it certainly did not resolve issues to everyone's satisfaction out in open jungle and ocean. The dispute is geopolitical, which is confounded by ethnic differences and historical animosity as one side tries to outdo the other. Buddhism does not figure into it. Both lands are Theravada Buddhist with Hindu histories and interaction, according to their own mythologies, with space traveling entities that inspired their technological prowess and expanding influence at different times in history.
- PHOTO: Cambodian-style Buddha with chief male disciples Sariputra and Maha Moggallana (trekearth.com)