READ BLOG:unsafe tussle: All parties to the South China Sea dispute must exercise restraint China and the ASEAN countries had inked the declaration in 2002, which is not legally binding, to ensure peaceful resolution of disputes in SCS.
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“The reason is because the Chinese lobbied to keep any reference to the South China Sea out of the final joint declaration”, the official said, on condition of anonymity.
Chang made the remarks, reported by China’s official Xinhua news agency Wednesday, in a meeting with Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani on the sidelines of a conference of Southeast Asian defense ministers in Kuala Lumpur. He also said that worldwide maritime laws should be adhered to.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter today toured the USS Theodore Roosevelt in the South China Sea and expressed concern about China’s activities in those waters.
A meeting of South East Asian defence ministers is to end without a joint statement, amid disagreements over mentioning China’s activity in the South China Sea.
Tensions are rising in the dispute involving claimant countries Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Philippines, Taiwan and China.
The patrol prompted China’s naval chief to warn his USA counterpart that a minor incident could spark war if the United States did not stop “provocative acts”.
Beijing accuses Washington of meddling in the regional disputes and deliberately stirring up tensions in the region. “We want China to be part of the security system of Asia and not to stand apart from it”, Carter said, adding that he had accepted an invitation from President Xi Jinping to visit China. However, it failed to issue a joint statement on Wednesday.
The meeting comes after a United States warship sailed close to one of the man-made islands of China in the Spratly archipelago in a freedom-of-navigation patrol.
China regretted there was no communique from the Kuala Lumpur meeting and blamed the failure to issue a joint declaration on a nation “out of the region”, according to a statement from the Defense Ministry.
This year’s ASEAN Defense Minister’s meeting has included the 10-countries in the ASEAN grouping, as well as China, Russia, the United States and Japan.
A Foreign Ministry spokesperson urged the United States to be “frank and forthright” in the South China Sea issue on Thursday. The Americans argued that it would be better to make no joint statement at all rather than issue one that omitted mention of the contentious South China Sea issue.
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Asserting that maritime security is a common challenge, he said “the situation in the South China Sea and recent developments there have attracted concern”.
