Nakatani later met with Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein and agreed to promote cooperation on maritime security issues.
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“China has consistently respected and safeguarded all countries’ freedom of navigation and overflight enjoyed under global law”, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) said yesterday when asked about the Carter carrier visit before it took place.
They “tried to forcefully stuff in content to the joint declaration”, and the responsibility for failing to come up with a joint statement was completely with those countries, the ministry said in a microblog post.
Carter said the inability of the Southeast Asian ministers to agree on a statement reflected their concern about China’s activity in the sea.
Participants included US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and China’s Defense Minister Chang Wanquan.
Carter said the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier’s presence is a “symbol and a sign of the critical role the United States’ military power plays in what is a very consequential region for the American future”.
The islands in the SCS have been China’s territory since ancient times and are the heritage of the Chinese ancestors, and China has no need to demonstrate its sovereignty over the islands by construction, he was quoted as saying by state-run Xinhua news agency.
“The U.S. action aims at encouraging countries such as the Philippines to further challenge China on the South China Sea issue”, Zhang said.
China insists it has sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea.
But a Pentagon spokesman said the visit might not be directly related to recent contentious exchanges between the USA and China about the South China Sea and, that with 50 US naval assets now in the region, it is normal for a defense chief to pay a visit to a ship. The meeting was initially held in 2006 and serves as a platform for the promotion of regional peace and stability. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims.
He did not avoid discussing the central issue that brought him to the region: “There’s a lot of concern about Chinese behavior out here”.
Officials had planned to make a joint statement at the end of the meeting, but failed to because of the disagreements over the South China Sea.
China has repeatedly opposed attempts to raise the South China Sea conflict at ASEAN meetings.
The defense ministers’ meeting comes as China is fuming over what was seen as a provocative act by the United States last week when it sent the destroyer USS Lassen within 12 nautical miles of a few small artificial islands that China has built on a disputed reef.
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The Southeast Asian grouping will continue to engage China and the U.S.to ensure peace and stability in the region, he said.
