“The ministers voiced their strong opposition to any coercive unilateral actions that could alter the status quo and increase tensions”, said Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Ministers Fumio Kishida and Julie Bishop in a statement.
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The top USA diplomat shared a working lunch Wednesday with the new Philippine president, who has criticized US security policies and publicly made friendly overtures to China. “The others are not concerned with that dispute”, Yasay told reporters. China has said it will “never” halt its work on the artificial islands.
“Conversation will continue to proceed”, he said.
He also claimed it was the Philippines’ own Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Perfecto Yasay, who asserted at the Asean meeting that the South China Sea dispute should be kept between his country and Beijing.
Richardson said he raised the issue with Chinese officials during his visit to China last week.
Yasay met with United States counterpart John Kerry on Wednesday in Manila, during which Yasay thanked him for Washington’s support on the court decision.
Yasay said he and Kerry discussed Philippine plans to negotiate with China.
Kerry said he was “very satisfied” with the communique as it showed all members were fully supportive of the rule of law, even though the thorny issue of the arbitration case was left out.
Yasay said former President Fidel V. Ramos had accepted the offer of President Duterte to be the special envoy to negotiate with China.
China did not participate in and has refused to accept the July 12 ruling by the United Nations -backed Permanent Court of Arbitration, in which USA ally Manila won an emphatic legal victory.
At the same time, however, Yasay said the Philippines “had never urged or asked the global community, particularly ASEAN, to support us in the merits of our case”.
The Philippines “vigorously pushed” for the inclusion of comment on an arbitration ruling in a joint statement from Southeast Asian countries but its failure to secure that was no diplomatic win for China, Manila’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.
Rice told Chinese officials that countries should work to reduce tensions in the South China Sea, but that the USA would continue to carry out military operations there that have angered Beijing, a senior US government official said Tuesday, July 26. But, it was clear that not all agreed on respecting the arbitration decision.
China’s move to fortify rocky outcrops in the South China Sea has alarmed countries along the sea.
“We’re not trying to create a confrontation”.
“The decision itself is a binding decision but we’re not trying to create a contradiction, we’re trying to create a solution – mindful of the rights of people that are established under the law”.
Earlier, Cambodia was blamed for preventing ASEAN from reaching a consensus on the South China Sea, parts of which the Philippines claims as the West Philippine Sea.
China is bitterly opposed to the arbitration panel’s decision and vowed to ignore it.
Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have claims to the South China Sea, a vital waterway through which US$5 trillion (S$6.8 trillion) in annual trade passes. It is also believed to sit atop vast reserves of oil and gas.
Kerry, however stressed that the USA takes a strong position in supporting the rule of law, as well as on protecting rights and freedoms of nations to freedom of navigation and use of air and sea space.
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Kerry is the highest-ranking United States official to visit the Philippines since Duterte’s election victory in May and follows a meeting of foreign ministers from Southeast Asian nations in Laos this week.
