U.S. President Barack Obama was set to raise concerns at the summit about China’s more assertive posture in the South China Sea.
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In a communique after the talks in Sydney, Japan and Australia called on “all claimants to halt large-scale land reclamation, construction, and use for military purposes” in the South China Sea.
The past year saw heightened regional tensions over Beijing’s island reclamation projects in the intensely contested South China Sea, which pits China against South East Asian countries including Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino told an Asia-Pacific summit yesterday that “the world is watching” whether China would behave as a responsible power in the simmering standoff over maritime territory. Liu said the move went beyond the “freedom of navigation”, the report relays.
Concerns have been growing over the rapid appearance of islands created by piling sand atop reefs and atolls controlled by China, which is now adding harbors, air strips and large buildings.
He also called for direct negotiations to resolve the dispute.
China’s construction work on its own islands and reefs in the South China Sea is something “we have to do” for the sake of improving living conditions for people there as well as better fulfillment of China’s global obligation, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Sunday.
The Community declaration was signed by leaders of the 10- member Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Kuala Lumpur, this year’s host of the group’s annual summit.
On the stand of Asean leaders regarding the issue of South China Sea’s maritime and territorial disputes, Najib said they reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, security and stability. Stressing that China firmly pursues a defence policy that is defensive in nature, Hong said China opposes any country launching military operations that undermine regional safety, stability and mutual trust.
Liu’s comments also serve to send a notice to China’s rivals in the region that it will not back down from its position on the resource-rich sea, irrespective of pressure from the United States. Vice foreign minister Liu Zhenmin also criticised the recent U.S. deployment of naval vessels to the South China Sea.
The summit’s host, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, urged his counterparts to step up efforts to realise a vision that many experts view as hard, if not impossible, to achieve.
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In a report published on the Chinese defense ministry’s website on Thursday, China’s top admiral, Wu Shengli, said his forces have shown “enormous restraint” in the face of USA provocations in the South China Sea, while warning they stand ready to respond to repeated breaches of Chinese sovereignty.
