China said on Sunday that the United States is making political provocations with its patrols in the South China Sea, as tensions around the waterways mount.
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First, all countries make the commitment to observing the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, defend the outcome of WWII and post-war order, cherish hard-won peace and jointly safeguard peace and stability in the world and the region, including in the South China Sea, said Li.
Premier Li said a few countries outside the region are conducting a high-profile intervention.
China has declared ownership of virtually all of the South China Sea, conflicting with the various claims of Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Brunei.
China on Sunday told other countries not to “deliberately stir up trouble” in the disputed South China Sea, while insisting it has no intention of militarizing the strategically vital area even though it has increased construction activities there.
Obama met Saturday with his ASEAN counterparts, and a joint statement emerged that stressed the need to maintain freedom of navigation and over-flight in the South China Sea.
During his four-day stay in Malaysia, he is also to pay his first official visit to the country since taking office in March 2013.
He said out of a few 1,000 islands, reefs and atolls in the vast sea, China has occupied only seven small islands and reefs in waters under its jurisdiction.
Earlier this month, US B-52 bombers flew near a few of the artificial islands, signaling Washington’s determination to challenge Beijing’s claim.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Kuala Lumpur of leaders from 18 countries, including China, Japan and the United States, comes as maritime disagreements have dominated global headlines.
Eight years in the making, the AEC, as it is known, seeks to make the diverse region economically and politically better integrated with hopes of competing with the Asian powerhouses China and India.
Confront Islamist extremists Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak opened the weekend series of meetings earlier on Saturday, calling on world leaders to confront Islamist extremism.
Many of them came from Manila for the annual meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
The declaration of an “ASEAN Economic Community” (AEC) takes ASEAN a step closer to an envisioned single Southeast Asian market with free flow of goods, capital and skilled labour across borders. “Now we have to assure freer movements and removal of barriers that hinder growth and investment”.
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“That is in nobody’s interest”, Li said. He said predominantly Islamic countries such as Malaysia have a duty to expose as lies the “ideology propagated by these extremists that is the cause of this sadistic violence”.
