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Asian Nations at Odds over Sovereignty Join up to Fight Marine Trash

Ralph Jennings

   TAIPEI - An agreement among Southeast Asian leaders this month to fight
   floating plastics in the South China Sea and surrounding waterways
   marks an upswing in cooperation among countries that normally compete
   over sovereignty.

   Heads of state from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian
   Nations (ASEAN) noted "progress" at their annual summit November 2-3 in
   "enhancing environmental protection and cooperation" including on
   reducing marine debris, the association chairman's statement says. In
   June the countries had signed a declaration on fighting marine debris
   including a buildup of floating plastics.

   Association members Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines
   dispute sovereignty over parts of the South China Sea, a 3.5
   million-square-kilometer waterway rich in fisheries and energy
   reserves. They also contest the claims of China, which calls nearly the
   whole sea its own.

   An effort to rid plastics will bind those countries together as they
   face a common threat to fisheries and coastal tourism, both economic
   staples, analysts say.

   "I think there is an urgent realization to do something to clean up the
   plastic debris in our seas," said Termsak Chalermpalanupap, fellow with
   the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. "We are among the top 10
   polluters, dumping a lot of plastics back into the sea and they wash up
   into our tourist beaches. That's our problem."

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