Hague rejection of China claims, ruling US wanted: Journalist
Press TV has conducted an interview with Michael Penn, a journalist and political commentator from Tokyo, to discuss Cambodia's act in preventing Southeast Asian countries from reaching a consensus over the South China Sea dispute after an international tribunal rejected Beijing's territorial claims to the waters.
The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: What could perhaps be more appropriate forum to arbitrate this matter where the decision could be respected by all players involved and not be influenced by outside forces because we know The Hague is influenced by certain Western countries that have nothing to do with the South China Sea dispute?
Penn: I'm not sure that there is actually a forum that you could say all sides with the regard as being completely neutral or even-handed. Right now there's a very strong competition for influence which we are seeing being played out to in ASEAN and so I think that probably there's no place that all parties could go to get a judgment that everybody would respect.
Press TV: How much do you think that the US had influence over The Hague decision to say that China does not have or rejected China's total claims to the South China Sea last month?
Penn: As far as I know certainly Washington celebrated the ruling and this is the ruling they very much wanted. Whether or not Washington had any direct influence in being able to tell the judges how to rule, I really have no evidence on that point. I think that often in legal disputes there are arguments that can be made on many sides and the judges rule in the way that they did which was obviously very very against what China wanted to see. But on the other hand, China's claims were somewhat different than the claims made by other countries in terms of territorial issues.
So, it's not so surprising they ruled in this way. So, did the US directly influence the ruling, there's no evidence of that but you can certainly say that it was the ruling they wanted.
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