The US yesterday warned that it would not tolerate efforts to control sea and air routes in the South China Sea, as Southeast Asian nations debated how hard to pressure Beijing on its island-building.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said at a regional summit that open navigation of the strategically important area was an “intrinsic right.”
“Let me be clear: The United States will not accept restrictions on freedom of navigation and overflight, or other lawful uses of the sea,” he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur, after attending a summit dominated by the flashpoint issue.
Photo: Reuters
China has sparked alarm by expanding tiny reefs and constructing military posts, steps viewed by some of its neighbors as violating a regional pledge against provocative actions in the area.
The long-simmering dispute has flared at the Malaysia meet, which is being hosted by ASEAN and includes envoys from more than a dozen other nations, including China, Japan, South Korea and the US.
Beijing claims control over nearly the entire South China Sea, a key shipping route thought to hold rich oil and gas reserves.
The Philippines, Vietnam Malaysia and Brunei — all ASEAN members — also have various claims, as does Taiwan, many of which overlap. Each year the regional ASEAN bloc, which prides itself on its history of consensus diplomacy, releases a joint communique after the annual meeting of its foreign ministers, which took place on Tuesday.
However, the nations have been at loggerheads for the past three days over the wording of the paragraphs addressing the South China Sea.
Diplomatic sources said the Philippines and Vietnam in particular were pushing for stronger language on Chinese land reclamation, which could help shore up Beijing’s disputed territorial claims.
However, there was pushback from traditional China allies among the association, they said.
“China’s friends are taking a hard stance,” one diplomat familiar with the drafting said.
The diplomat did not specify which countries were taking a hard line, but Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar traditionally ally with China within ASEAN.
Singapore Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam told reporters yesterday morning that the joint statement was supposed to have been completed the previous day.
“It has not been finalized as of now. There are difficulties,” he said.
“The paragraphs relating to the South China Sea are causing some problems,” he added.
A draft of the communique obtained by Agence France-Presse makes no mention of halting reclamation.
Instead it warns that recent developments in the sea “have the very potential of undermining peace, security and stability.”
Delegates said they still hoped to get a final joint statement by the end of the day.
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