US, Japan, Australia chide China after weak ASEAN move

US Secretary of State John Kerry, Japan Foreign Minister Japan‬ Fumio Kishida and Australia‬ Foreign Minister Julie Bishop meet in Vientiane, Laos on Monday, 25 July 2016, for the sixth ministerial meeting of the Trilateral Strategic Dialogue. US State Dept/Released

The United States, Japan and Australia have beseech China not to construct military outposts and reclaim land in the disputed South China Sea, in a strong show of support for Southeast Asian nations that have territorial disputes with Beijing in the resource-rich area.

A joint statement by the three allies, issued late Monday, ironically fills the vacuum created by Southeast Asia's main grouping, which during its meeting of foreign ministers on Sunday failed to take a stand against China because of disunity among themselves.

"The ministers expressed their serious concerns over maritime disputes in the South China Sea. The ministers voiced their strong opposition to any coercive unilateral actions that could alter the status quo and increase tensions," said the statement issued by Secretary of State John Kerry and foreign ministers Fumio Kishida and Julie Bishop.

The three met in Vientiane on the sidelines of a series of meetings organized by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. The grouping could have leveraged the recent decision by a permanent arbitration panel in The Hague, which ruled in favor of the Philippines in a case it brought against China in their dispute in the South China Sea.