China’s push to expand tiny atolls in the South China Sea into full islands capable of supporting a sustained military presence also has hung over the meetings.
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Washington was testing Beijing with its insistence on “freedom of navigation” patrols in the waterway, Mr Liu said.
An arbitral tribunal in The Hague Tuesday heard some of the Philippines’ territorial claims over the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea in a hearing on Tuesday. That has prompted concerns in Washington and across the region that Beijing is trying to militarize its claims in the South China Sea.
China on Tuesday, November 24, reaffirmed that it will “not accept” a judicial arbitration on the South China Sea, as an worldwide court was due to hear a case bought by the Philippines.
Echoing President Xi Jinping’s earlier statement to U.S. President Barack Obama in September, Liu said China is not militarizing the islands in question, according to a Bloomberg report cited by Time.
This year has seen increasingly vocal opposition by Vietnam and the Philippines, backed now by Japan and the USA, to China’s construction of buildings, jetties and airstrips on the islands, the BBC’s Jonathan Head in Kuala Lumpur says.
“For the sake of regional stability, the claimants should halt reclamation, construction and militarization of disputed areas”, Obama said at the third ASEAN-U.S. summit to be held in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.
He said the premier’s remarks were “quite mild” but he had taken “a firm stance”, which would help to earn the understanding of Association of Southeast Asian Nations member countries.
At a bilateral meeting with Obama in Manila on Thursday, Abe expressed his intention to consider SDF participation in surveillance activities in the South China Sea, drawing immediate opposition at home.
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”.
“China does not seek to “militarise” the South China Sea”, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei during a press briefing.
Control of the South China Sea has turned into a hot topic in recent years, with China contesting large parts of the sea claimed by other nations.
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PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III arrived early Monday after joining the Asean meetings in Kuala Lumpur and reported such achievements as the signing of the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on the establishment of the Asean Community and the Asean Vision 2025. “Now we have to assure freer movements and removal of barriers that hinder growth and investment”.
