KUALA LUMPUR: The planned joint declaration signing between defence chiefs at the Asean Defence Ministers' Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) has been scrapped.
Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said a consensus could not be reached among the participating nations, but did not elaborate further.
He said Asean had decided not come out with the joint declaration, adding that there were other avenues to address issues of contention.
It was reported that the joint declaration was cancelled after the Chinese delegation lobbied to block mention the republic's claims in the South China Sea.
Unnamed United States officials were quoted as saying that it would be better to make no joint statement at all rather than issue one that omitted mention of the contentious South China Sea issue.
The signing of the joint declaration was listed to be held today in the official programme, but has been taken off the schedule released by the Defence Ministry secretariat. No reason was given for the cancellation.
The ADMM is a gathering of the defence ministers from the 10 Asean nations. The ADMM-Plus sees the Asean ministers being joined by the defence chiefs of the bloc's eight dialogue partners -- Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the US.
The long-simmering dispute over the South China Sea sees some Asean members (Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and the Philippines), China and Taiwan claim overlapping areas in the sea.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea as its territory, and has embarked on a massive reclamation programme of the shallow reefs and atolls there.
The dispute has drawn in the US, which has cited fears of restrictions on navigation. Last week, a US Navy destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of the Subi Reef, which was part of the land claimed by China in the disputed Spratly Islands.
The US insists that it has freedom of navigation in the sea and will send ships to pass through the area "twice every quarter".