G-7 ministers will discuss S. China Sea at Japan meet

From the Daily Tribune (Apr 11): G-7 ministers will discuss S. China Sea at Japan meet

Foreign ministers of the Group of Seven (G-7) nations yesterday began two-day talks in Hiroshima, the city devastated by a US atomic bomb in 1945, anxious to show their solidarity in tackling maritime security in the South China Sea or West Philippine Sea.

On maritime security, the ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States are expected to voice opposition to any unilateral action to change the status quo amid concerns about China’s suspected militarization of parts of the South China Sea.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier will miss all Sunday’s official events, including G-7 talks and a one-one-one meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, due to a delay in his arrival, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.

The US is expected to raise the issue of China’s territorial ambitions in the South China Sea in a move that would likely draw an angry response from the government in Beijing.

Last Friday, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that the US should discuss security issues any time it meets with key partners in Asia. “What we want to see happen in South China Sea is important. It’s important to the region, it’s important to the stability of the region, so I would suggest that those topics should be on the table.”

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday said the G-7 meeting shouldn’t “hype” the South China Sea issue. He made the comments in a meeting with British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond in Beijing, according to a statement on the ministry’s Web site Saturday.

Aside from China, other countries lay overlapping claims to the East and South China Sea, including Japan, Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines.      

http://www.tribune.net.ph/nation/g-7-ministers-will-discuss-s-china-sea-at-japan-meet