The ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting and related events being held in Bangkok, Thailand, provide a chance for the 10-nation regional block to discuss with its major dialogue partners including China and the United States how to seek greater cooperation and tackle key concerns such as regional security and the disputes in the South China Sea.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, while trying to raise its own voice in regional affairs, has remained wary of having to choose between China and the US, a scenario that it believes would compromise its goal of sustainable growth.

After all, it is economic cooperation that tops the block's agenda, especially as negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership are expected to be completed by the end of this year. The proposed free trade agreement between ASEAN and its six partners including China, Japan and India will be the biggest in the world, accounting for 40 percent of the world's GDP and 30 percent of global trade.

Yet contrary to the common aspiration for peace and prosperity in the region, the US seems hell-bent on taking every possible opportunity to sow seeds of discord between ASEAN and China. Just prior to the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting, it accused China of "bullying behavior" in the South China Sea, and vowed to insulate the ASEAN nations from external coercion.

This sounds odd and out of sync with the current situation in the South China Sea, as it is the US which is the bullying external coercer with its so-called freedom of navigation and overflight military operations. For aside from those, the South China Sea has "been stabilized in general, with growing momentum for cooperation and increasing positive factors", as China's Foreign Ministry said.

As part of their efforts to build trust and maintain stability in the region, China and ASEAN recently finished a preliminary draft on a maritime code of conduct, which laid the foundation for them to settle their disputes peacefully in accordance with international law.

Yet despite China's repeated assurance that it has no intention to build a sphere of influence, the US has seen each of China's moves in the region as being aimed at driving it out of Asia. It has thus tried to drive a wedge between regional countries and China.

The US may find it hard to accept that China will continue to peacefully rise, and the region will advance its economic integration. Unfortunately if one has only a hammer in one's hand, everything looks like a nail.