US President Barack Obama yesterday hailed the East Asia Summit as the top forum for tackling the region’s seething maritime row with China, setting a course for confrontation with Beijing.
Beijing has testily declared the South China Sea dispute off-limits at today’s talks, to be attended by Obama, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) and 16 other nations, including several with claims over the waterway.
However, Obama said the gathering, held this year on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, “can be the premier arena for us to be able to work together on a wide range of issues — maritime security or non-proliferation.”
Yesterday, Wen again warned against interference by “external forces” in the wrangle.
China claims all of the strategic area, as does Taiwan, while four Southeast Asian countries declare ownership of parts of it, with Vietnam and the Philippines accusing Beijing’s forces of increasing aggression there.
Diplomats in Bali have spoken this week about the challenges members of ASEAN — who held their own summit yesterday — face as they manage a balancing act between Beijing and Washington.
China is ASEAN’s biggest trading partner and prefers to negotiate with its weaker regional neighbors individually rather than collectively.
“External forces should not use any excuses to interfere,” Wen said at a meeting with Southeast Asian leaders ahead of the wider East Asia Summit. “China will never seek hegemony and we are against any hegemonic behavior.”
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