Asean leaders raise concerns about South China Sea island-building as China tries to keep it off the table

Despite China's best efforts to avoid the South China Sea issuing from overshadowing a regional summit, Southeast Asian leaders raised their concerns over the maritime dispute yesterday.

Speaking at a summit between China and the Association of South East Asian Countries (Asean), which is among a series of annual meetings taking place in Kuala Lumpur this weekend, Premier Li Keqiang said Beijing's ties with the 10-nation grouping had improved "steadily" over the past year. "China has always made relations with Asean a priority," Li said.

The past year saw heightened regional tensions over Beijing's island reclamation projects in the intensely contested South China Sea, which pits China against South East Asian countries including Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei.

The annual summits, which involve Asean and powers including the United States, China and Japan, have been used as a platform to raise the issue with China. But Beijing has disregarded Asean's role in resolving the territorial disputes and prefers to deal with claimants bilaterally. Much to Beijing's chagrin, the leaders have expressed concerns in joint statements at the end of the event for many years.

Before the summits, Chinese officials have said the event should not be used to discuss the maritime territorial issues.

Speaking at the Asean opening ceremony yesterday, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak urged "all parties" to exercise self-restraint and to avoid escalating tension in the South China Sea, without naming the countries.