“We have said repeatedly with respect to China that the standard that should be applied to all countries with respect to the South China Sea is no militarisation”, Kerry said.
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On the Valentine’s day, satellite images showed eight missile’s two batteries launchers and a radar system on Yongxing or Woody Island.
Beijing has grown increasingly assertive on maritime territorial disputes with south east Asian nations in recent years, with the country claiming most of the South and East China seas as part of its sovereign territory.
The Chinese defence ministry did not deny or confirm the reports to Sky News, saying only that China has “legitimate rights to deploy protection facilities in the territory”.
Malacañang yesterday joined Australia in calling on China not to raise further tensions in the disputed South China Sea following its deployment of missiles in the Woody Island in the Paracel island chain.
“We had these conversations with the Chinese and I’m confident that, over the next days, we will have further very serious conversations on this”, he said.
Colmenares pointed out that any “threat to Vietnam is also a threat to the Philippines”.
China last month said it would not seek militarization of its South China Sea islands and reefs, but that did not mean it would not set up defences.
Tsai Ing-Wen, Taiwan’s recently elected president, said on Wednesday the move had created a “tense situation”, but Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, said the reports were being exaggerated by Western media outlets.
In a message has been sent to China, which is attempting to turn the artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea into military strongholds, U.S. warned that its self-serving actions are unacceptable.
Directly regarding the sovereignty of the small islands in the South China Sea, Loesche wrote, “Fears regarding China’s ambitions are fueled by the construction or enhancement of runways and a military buildup in that area”.
“Vietnam’s reaction is not strong enough amid China’s assertion and militarization within Vietnam’s sovereignty”, Professor Tuong Lai, a South China Sea analyst who served as an adviser to the late prime minister Vo Van Kiet, told VOA Vietnamese on Friday.
The limited self-defense facilities deployed on the islands are the result of China’s right to self-defense granted by worldwide law, which has nothing to do with militarization.
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Turnbull said both Australia and New Zealand wanted to see a lowering of tensions as he urged Chinese President Xi Jinping to resolve all disputes in the seas – through which one-third of the world’s oil passes – through legal means.
