U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday urged progress on a code of conduct to govern the hotly disputed South China Sea, after ally the Philippines warned of a Chinese military build-up in the strategically vital waters.<\/p>\n
“We very much hope to see progress on a substantive code of conduct to help ensure stability in this vital region,” Kerry told foreign ministers of Southeast Asian nations at a meeting in Brunei.<\/p>\n
Kerry reiterated that the United States does not take a stand on the sea’s myriad disputes, many of which pit a rising China against its neighbors.<\/p>\n
But Kerry said: “We have a strong interest in the manner in which the disputes of the South China Sea are addressed and in the conduct of the parties.”<\/p>\n
“As a Pacific nation and a resident power, the United States has a national interest in the maintenance of peace and stability, respect for international law, unimpeded lawful commerce and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea,” Kerry said.<\/p>\n
But he said, in a clear reference to China: “Our actions are not intended to contain or to counterbalance any one country.”<\/p>\n
China has been reluctant to reach a code of conduct with the ASEAN bloc, preferring to negotiate individually with each country.<\/p>\n
The Philippines and Vietnam have in recent years accused China of increasingly aggressive actions to exert claims to the sea.<\/p>\n
China insists it has sovereign rights to all of the sea. ASEAN members the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia, as well as Taiwan, also claim parts of the sea.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert Del Rosario told his ASEAN colleagues in Brunei that China had begun a “massive” military build-up in the sea.<\/p>\n
“The overwhelming presence of Chinese ships, including military and paramilitary ships, and the issuance of threats pose serious challenges for the region as a whole,” Del Rosario said.<\/p>\n
Kerry’s predecessor, Hillary Clinton, made similar statements on the U.S. position on the South China Sea, starting at a 2010 ASEAN meeting in Hanoi.<\/p>\n
Those comments signaled stronger U.S. support for Southeast Asian nations at a time of tension with China.<\/p>\n
Kerry, who flew straight into meetings after exhaustive diplomacy in the Middle East, rejected suggestions that President Barack Obama’s administration would focus less on Asia after Clinton’s departure.<\/p>\n
“Let me be crystal clear. I know that some people wondered whether in the second term of the Obama administration and with a new secretary of state, are we going to continue on the path that we have been on?<\/p>\n
“The answer, I say to all of you directly, is yes — not just yes, but we hope to increase the effort,” Kerry said.<\/p>\n
Source:Agence France Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday urged progress on a code of conduct to govern the hotly disputed South China Sea, after ally the Philippines warned of a Chinese military build-up in the strategically vital waters.<\/p>\n
“We very much hope to see progress on a substantive code of conduct to help ensure stability in this vital region,” Kerry told foreign ministers of Southeast Asian nations at a meeting in Brunei.<\/p>\n
Kerry reiterated that the United States does not take a stand on the sea’s myriad disputes, many of which pit a rising China against its neighbors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":10387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}