U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter is proposing to accelerate and deepen defense cooperation in the Asia-Pacific by expanding a “security network” of countries whose militaries would train together and eventually operate together.
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“The objective of the PH [Philippines] is to cover up its illegal occupancy of some reefs in the Nansha islands”, the admiral claimed, using the Chinese name for the Spratly Islands.
She said China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and the adjacent waters.
“We were not isolated in the past, we are not isolated now, and we will not be isolated in the future”, Adm. Sun said at the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual gathering of Asian and Western defense officials.
“We think that the regulatory environment and the legal environment in Mongolia needs to be improved”, the official said, after he was asked about transparency in the key sector.
In raising the prospect of conflict in the South China Sea, Carter said China is isolating itself by building up man-made islands there, including the erection of airfields that will extend Beijing’s military reach.
Gregory Poling, director of Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies, said China would not risk an escalation if it knew the United States would try to deter its actions on Scarborough Shoal.
“If the law of the sea is not respected today in the China seas, it will be threatened tomorrow in the Arctic, in the Mediterranean, or elsewhere”, he said.
The comments came amid concerns that an global court ruling expected in coming weeks on a case brought by the Philippines against China over its South China Sea claims could prompt Beijing to declare an ADIZ, as it did over the East China Sea in 2013, Reuters reported.
Taiwan-controlled Taiping, also known as Itu Aba, is the largest island in the disputed Nansha (Spratly) Islands, which are claimed by Taiwan, China, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia. Duterte is expected to follow a more moderate policy in regards to the South China Sea than his predecessor Benigno Aquino, whose confrontational policy was instrumental in dragging China to arbitration court past year.
Rhetoric has escalated ahead of a decision at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on a case brought by the Philippines, a longtime USA ally and former colony, against China, which says it will not recognise any ruling.
“This decision should not be viewed by China as a suggestion, but as a law that China must acknowledge, abide by and uphold”, he said in his prepared remarks. China has shunned the proceedings and says it will not recognise any ruling. “I fear the consequences if China chooses the path of disruption”.
In response, China has referred to the United States involvement in the dispute as the “greatest” threat to the region.
China supported tougher United Nations sanctions following North Korea’s fourth nuclear test in January.
China’s vice minister of foreign affairs Zheng Zeguang warned against rising tensions ahead of Monday’s meeting.
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China’s Adm. Sun Jianguo of the People’s Liberation Army challenged the claim.
