A disagreement over mentioning the South China Sea dispute has forced defense ministers at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting to completely abandon their plan to issue a joint declaration at the end of a regional security gathering in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, where U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter was in attendance. A statement from China's Ministry of Defense said 'individual countries outside the region' were to blame for the impasse.

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U.S. officials told Reuters earlier in the week that while Japan and the U.S. were advocating for the conflict in the South China Sea to be included in the joint statement, China was strongly opposed to the move.

Two senior U.S. diplomats, who participated in the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus), revealed that the caucus was divided between countries that agreed with China's stance and those who supported the U.S. and Japan, according to the New York Times.

China has repeatedly opposed attempts to raise the South China Sea conflict at ASEAN meetings. But this hasn't always been successful. In August, ahead of the 48^th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in Malaysia, China's Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi explained that China has refused to put the maritime territorial dispute up for discussion at the regional meeting because from experience multilateral platforms are not the ideal place to settle conflicts of this nature. This did not stop U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry from voicing warnings that Washington will not accept any attempt to restrict movement in the lucrative South China Sea route.

The clash over the content of the joint statement by ASEAN defense ministers highlights a growing division over China's activities in the South China Sea. Last week, the U.S. Navy patrolled a warship within 12 nautical miles of China's settlement in the Spratly Islands. The move has attracted sharp criticisms from China. On Tuesday, China's Defense Minister Chang Wanquan warned his U.S. counterpart Carter that China will not condone such actions, which threatens her sovereignty as well as regional peace and stability.

Meanwhile, in defiance to these warnings, a U.S. defense official has revealed that Carter and Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammudin Hussein will ride a warship in the South China Sea on Thursday. The voyage is yet to be confirmed by Malaysian authorities. If this is a freedom-of-navigation [FON] exercise, it will represent a new strategy from the U.S. which has usually conducted FON missions unilaterally.

Hussein downplayed the importance of the ceremonial joint statement by ASEAN defense ministers during a press conference at the end of the gathering. He, however, underscored the volatile nature of the South China Sea dispute at the moment.

TagsASEAN South China Sea Dispute, ASEAN Defense Ministers Statement, ASEAN Statement Cancelled South China Sea Dispute, U.S.