VIENTIANE, Laos—Vietnam has warned that the inability of Southeast Asian nations to forge a unified front against Beijing’s militarization of the South China Sea is a “test” of the regional bloc in the face of its greatest security challenge.
The unusually strong comments from a key claimant to the contested waters, comes as diplomats meet in Laos for the first summit since a UN-backed tribunal debunked Beijing’s legal claim to vast stretches of the strategically vital sea.
After talks stuttered on Sunday, Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a late night statement warning that the South China Sea had become “a test case for the unity and the central role of Asean.”