WASHINGTON — Russia and China blocked a proposed consensus statement for the East Asia Summit drafted by Southeast Asian countries, mainly over objections to language on the contested South China Sea, a US official told Reuters on Saturday (Oct 12).

A draft statement arrived at by consensus by the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations was put to the 18-nation East Asia Summit meeting in Laos on Thursday evening, the official said.

"Asean presented this final draft and said that, essentially, this was a take-it-or-leave-it draft," the official said on condition of anonymity.

The US, Japan, Australia, South Korea and India all said they could support it, the official said, adding: "The Russians and the Chinese said that they could not and would not proceed with a statement."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference in Vientiane on Friday the final declaration had not been adopted because of "persistent attempts by the United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand to turn it into a purely political statement".

China's Washington embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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