The US on Saturday called for China to lower tensions in the South China Sea through dialogue as the Pacific powers held first-of-a-kind talks on friction in Southeast Asia.
Assistant US Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said he assured China during the talks in Hawaii that the US welcomed a strong role for Beijing, which has warned Washington against involvement in the intensifying disputes.
“We had a candid and clear discussion about these issues,” Campbell, the top US diplomat for East Asia, told reporters after the session in Honolulu.
“We want tensions to subside. We have a strong interest in the maintenance in peace and stability, and we are seeking a dialogue among all of the key players,” he said.
Incidents in recent weeks have heightened tension on the South China Sea, a strategic and potentially oil-rich area where China has sometimes overlapping disputes with Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
While the US and China often talk, Saturday’s session was the first to focus specifically on the Asia-Pacific region. The dialogue was set up during the top-level Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington in May.
Campbell said that the US and China would hold another round of the dialogue in China at a time to be determined.
“We had a useful and productive exchange of views,” Campbell said. “I thought the overall tone and content was constructive.”
The US and China conducted “open, frank and constructive discussions with the goal of obtaining a better understanding of each other’s intentions, policies and actions toward the Asia-Pacific region,” he said.
Campbell said that the US highlighted during the talks in the Pacific state that it is an Asia-Pacific country with an interest in the region’s peace, stability and prosperity.
He said the US was trying to build new partnerships in the area and that it supports a strong China.
US President Barack Obama’s administration has focused on building ties with Southeast Asia, accusing the previous team of former US president George W. Bush of neglecting the fast-growing and often US-friendly region because of preoccupation with wars.
The US has rallied behind Southeast Asian nations amid the high tension on the South China Sea.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pledged on Thursday to help the Philippines — a treaty ally of the US — to modernize its navy.
The US and Vietnam have also been stepping up cooperation, with the former war foes issuing a joint call during recent talks in Washington for a peaceful resolution of disputes in the South China Sea.
China has insisted that it wants a peaceful resolution of conflicts and has voiced alarm at what some Chinese policymakers consider an effort to hold back the rising power.
China’s top official at the Hawaii talks, Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai (崔天凱), said ahead of the session that US support of its partners “can only make things more complicated.”
“I believe some countries now are playing with fire and I hope the US won’t be burned by this fire,” Cui said, as quoted by the Wall Street Journal.
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