Addressing the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, Obama said that Congress should approve United Nations rules created to peacefully resolve maritime disputes.
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China has urged the USA to honor its commitment of not taking sides on the territorial disputes over the South China Sea.
It is also pivotal to China’s effort to transform the focus of its navy from coastal defense to a “blue water navy” capable of projecting power across the region.
Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Wednesday he welcomes a possible warming of relations with the Philippines, now strained over China’s claims to most of the South China Sea.
The senator, who is a retired Navy captain and chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, was replying to a question on the options of response of the United States and countries in the region should China reject the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration on a case against its claims to the South China Sea brought by the Philippines.
Beijing has angrily rejected the panel’s jurisdiction and vowed to ignore its ruling. “I don’t see why we should stop”, he added.
In the year since the last summit, China has stepped up its maritime patrols across the South China Sea and built up a series of military bases on small islands it reclaimed from the ocean.
Mr McCain also suggested stepping up freedom of navigation operations to bring home the point that the South China Sea is global waters and “filling in islands is in violation of worldwide law”.
Yasay said relations with China should improve.
On Friday, he said the USA will remain committed to regional security.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang said the U.S. should not decide its policy on the South China Sea based on what its allies think, and should stick to its promises not to take sides in the dispute. Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also claim parts of the sea.
But in response to comments and questions by several individuals along these lines at the annual Asia-Pacific Roundtable in Kuala Lumpur – one of the region’s premier annual Track Two forums – Wu Sichun, a leading Chinese scholar, said there was no room for compromise on this question.
U.S. President Barack Obama asked Congress to ratify contentious United Nations maritime rules Thursday, hoping to strengthen his hand in a unsafe standoff with Beijing over the disputed South China Sea.
Furthermore, to consolidate its role as a staunch supporter of the United States in realizing the later’s “rebalance in the Asia-Pacific”, Manila has relentlessly wooed Washington by allowing the USA army to use its military bases and hold joint military drills.
“China-US relations are too important for us to allow them to be hijacked by the South China Sea issue. The reality is not that China is trying to drive anyone out, but that there are attempts to deny China’s legitimate and expanding interests in its own region”. “We may have major differences, but we also share important interests, including maintaining regional peace and stability, supporting freedom of navigation and overflight in accordance with worldwide law and resolving disputes through peaceful negotiations and diplomatic dialogue”, wrote the envoy. “The Chinese and US sides will exchange candid, in-depth views on important and sensitive issues of shared concern”, said Zheng.
“China’s development won’t threaten any country”, said Mr Zheng.
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The choice of the region in the 21st century, he said, was not between China and the USA but “between two futures – one in which the rules based order is upheld and its benefits expanded to ever more people in Asia, or a darker future that resembles the past in this region and the world, where might makes right and bullies set the rules and break them”.
