US to press for voluntary freeze over South China Sea isles

From the Manila Bulletin (Aug 6): US to press for voluntary freeze over South China Sea isles

US Secretary of State John Kerry will press for a voluntary freeze on actions aggravating territorial disputes in the South China Sea despite Beijing’s rejection of the idea when he attends the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Myanmar this weekend.

Southeast Asian foreign ministers will meet and hold security talks in Myanmar with counterparts, including those from the United States and China with escalating tensions over maritime disputes in Asia likely to be a major issue.

Daniel Russel, the State Department’s senior diplomat for the East Asia region said the call was not new and was “not rocket science,” but “common sense.”

A priority for Kerry would be to lower tensions in the South China Sea, where about $5 trillion of maritime trade passes annually, and China and four members of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have rival claims.

“The regional economy is too important and too fragile for any country or any claimant to use the threat of military force or paramilitary force in retaliation, for intimidation, or as a coercive effort,” Russel told a news briefing on Monday.

He said there was room for rival claimants “to take some voluntary steps, and to identify actions they find troubling if not provocative on the part of other claimants, and to offer, if everyone will agree, to renounce those kinds of actions.”

Such steps could include abiding by an existing agreement not to seize unoccupied land features, or more significantly, a moratorium in land reclamation efforts, Russel said.

RIGHT TO BUILD

China said it can build whatever it wants on its islands in the South China Sea.  China claims 90 percent of the sea, which is believed to contain oil and gas deposits and has rich fishery resources.

Yi Xianliang, deputy head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Boundary and Ocean Affairs Departments, told reporters that China had every right to build on its islands as a way of improving basic living conditions there.

“The Spratly Islands are China’s intrinsic territory, and what China does or doesn’t do is up to the Chinese government. Nobody can change the government’s position,” Yi said.

It was a double standard to bring this issue up now when other countries had been doing similar things for years, he added.

“Why is it that when other countries want only build airports, nobody says a word? But China has only this year started small and necessary construction, to raise living conditions on the islands – and so many people raise doubts.”

Hong Kong media have reported that China is planning to build an air base on Fiery Cross Reef, though Yi said he was unaware of any such plans.

Yi said that proposals for a “freeze” on tension-raising activities were not helpful, and could be seen as an effort to undermine drawn-out efforts by China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for a code of conduct in the South China Sea by acting as a replacement for the code.

He said that if the United States had such a proposal, he had not seen it and that in any case the South China Sea was an issue for countries directly involved.

“Trust in us Asian people to use Asian means and wisdom to resolve our own problems,” he said.

The Philippines has also said it will propose a freeze at the ARF meeting, as well as implementation of a code of conduct and arbitration to settle disputes.

Manila called last month for a meeting of the four ASEAN claimants – itself, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam – ahead of ARF to hammer out a common stand in dealings with China. Efforts to launch such talks since December 2012 have so far failed.

China has been increasingly assertive in pressing its territorial claims and Washington fears misunderstandings could inadvertently lead to open conflict.

Russel said Washington wanted to see accelerated efforts by ASEAN and China to agree on a code of conduct.

China’s recent withdrawal of an oil rig from waters also contested by Vietnam had removed a serious irritant, he said, but it had left anger and tension and “serious questions on behalf of China’s neighbors about China’s long-term strategy.”

http://www.mb.com.ph/us-to-press-for-voluntary-freeze-over-south-china-sea-isles/