The participants were expected to let China off with a muted reprimand over its expansionist activities in South China Sea, according to a draft of their joint statement.
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Obama stressed that the USA will continue working with Asean to ensure peaceful resolution of these territorial disputes, keeping in mind the global tribunal’s verdict that favoured Manila and rejected China’s historical claims in the region.
The Chinese leader said the peace and stability in the South China Sea is highly related to the prosperity and development of countries in the region.
He criticized efforts to exaggerate and overstate differences which lead to discord, and in a veiled criticism of the USA “interference” in the South China Sea dispute with Philippines, said outside involvement would complicate issues.
Liu said ASEAN and China lacked an effective safety mechanism for the region and said they needed to improve cooperation to ensure the region’s continued prosperity.
The officials said the talks between Li and the Southeast Asian leaders went quite smoothly, although they said that there was no reference to the July tribunal ruling in The Hague that invalidated China’s vast territorial claims on nearly the entire waterway of South China Sea.
The government released the photos with a diagram showing the vessels’ exact locations at the shoal, which the Chinese coast guard seized after a tense standoff with Philippine vessels in 2012.
China values Russian President Vladimir Putin’s position on the South China Sea issue, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Thursday.
“We reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability and security and freedom of navigation in and over-flight in the South China Sea”, said the draft of the declaration.
Officials said that talks on Wednesday between ASEAN leaders and China’s Li had gone smoothly. Both the Philippines and China are signatories to the convention.
“ASEAN is key to the United States “rebalance” to Asia and more importantly is key to a peaceful and prosperous future for the world”, the United States president said.
The other ASEAN nations are Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand. Instead, Cambodia opposed including an explicit mention of the United Nations tribunal’s ruling, the official said.
China has proved it is willing to use deadly force to enforce its claims in the South China Sea. China claims territory belonging to the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan, and Indonesia, and its claims are widely rejected by the global community.
An artificial island at Scarborough Shoal could be a game changer in China’s quest to control the sea and raises the risk of armed confrontation with the U.S., according to security analysts.
Obama has urged Chinato adhere to the rule of Lawand not take unilateral measures that could raise tensions.
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Duterte “has been sending messages for improving relations with China since he took office”.
