South China Sea: does one-on-one mean a one-sided deal for Malaysia?

The foreign ministers of the two countries agreed last year that they would pursue one-on-one talks to settle their differences over the contested waters

But insiders in Kuala Lumpur say the bilateral route sets a dangerous precedent

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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (right) and former Malaysian foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah agreed to South China Sea talks a year ago. Photo: Reuters

Published: 11:00am, 27 Sep 2020Updated: 9:00pm, 27 Sep 2020

When Malaysia agreed last year to one-on-one talks with rival claimant China over the South China Sea, it caught observers by surprise.

While Kuala Lumpur was not the most vocal opponent of Beijing’s claims in the area, it had long been reluctant to engage in such negotiations.

Instead it has sought to chart a course between not antagonising China and quietly pursuing its own plan for oil and gas exploration in the contested waters.

It has preferred to leave discussions about jurisdiction over the resource-rich area to regional groupings like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), where various countries can work together to have a bigger say.

But in what was seen as a diplomatic coup for China, former foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah agreed in a meeting in September last year with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to go one on one.

With tensions rising with the United States over the South China Sea, Beijing has been pushing Kuala Lumpur for a breakthrough but with a year already gone since the agreement there has been no sign of progress – or of any more to come.