China planned to “expand and upgrade” the civilian facilities on the islands “to better serve commercial ships, fishermen, to help distressed vessels and provide more public services”, Liu said, adding that China rejects the notion that it is militarizing the South China Sea.
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This also includes military facilities to protect the islands and reefs, which are located far from mainland China, he said.
The tensions over these islands have been growing over the last years since China began artificially expanding the territory of these islands to construct airstrips and other military infrastructure.
He also said some nations had “great concern” about China’s reclamation but added countries meeting in Malaysia – including China – agreed to preserve the freedom of navigation in the area.
China is standing by its expansion of islets and reefs, and construction of artificial islands, in disputed waters of the South China Sea.
In October, the USS Lassen, a guided-missile destroyer, sailed around one of them.
Addressing 17 world leaders, including US President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Mr. Aquino said “we are now no longer allowed to enter areas within our exclusive economic zone (EEZ)”.
Beijing continues to insist that there is no problem with freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
China was put on the defensive against a barrage of criticism, but the country stuck to its stance that the islands will be used for peaceful purposes. India, the U.S. and several other countries, have been calling for “freedom of navigation” in the SCS.
President Barack Obama, who earlier in the week repeated U.S. calls for China to stop the land reclamation, announced Sunday he would host the ASEAN leaders at a meeting in the United States next year.
Competing claimants over the disputed waters of the South China Sea will face the worldwide tribunal in The Hague.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said countries with large populations of Muslims, including Russia, should unite to fight against Islamic State. She then stressed the need for member states to send a clear message to the North.
“The perpetrators of these cowardly and barbaric acts do not represent any race, religion or creed”, Prime Minister Datuk Najib Razak of Muslim-majority Malaysia told the summit.
Najib said Sunday at the closing ceremony of a biannual Southeast Asian summit: “I’d like to thank you for your leadership, and also for steering Myanmar to its transition to become a new democratic Myanmar”.
In Kuala Lumpur, Southeast Asia leaders will declare the establishment today of an “Asean Economic Community” (AEC), inspired by Europe.
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In a briefing to the press after an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit at Kuala Lumpur, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said: “One should never link such military facilities with efforts to militarize the islands and reefs and militarize the South China Sea”. The AEC is envisaged as a single market in which goods, investment and talent are unhindered by borders, tariffs and other barriers.
