Obama to hound China on sea row

From the Daily Tribune (Nov 16): Obama to hound China on sea row

Thorny issues unavoidable at APEC meet

Despite an accession of the Philippine government to defer talks on the South China Sea dispute during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Leaders Summit this week, US President Barack Obama is set to challenge China on its infrastructure buildup in the disputed area.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will also be in Manila for the Apec summit, an annual event that is meant to forge unity on free trade within the region.

China had insisted repeatedly in the lead-up to the summit that the South China Sea dispute was not relevant to the trade talks.

But US National Security Advisor Susan Rice said the dispute would be a “central issue” during Obama’s three-day trip to the Philippines starting on Tuesday, and a subsequent visit to Malaysia for another regional summit.

Rice also emphasised Obama would raise the issues of “maritime security” and “freedom of navigation,” terms commonly used when referring to the dispute.

This year’s meeting, thus, risks becoming entangled in various US- China power struggles, including over the South China Sea where Chinese island building in disputed waters has caused alarm in the United States and with its Asian allies.

The global menace of terrorism will also be an unwanted talking point after gunmen massacred more than 120 people in a series of coordinated attacks in Paris on Friday.

Philippine authorities had already undertaken their biggest security operation for the summit, which will gather leaders from 21 Pacific Rim economies on Wednesday and Thursday, but they vowed after the French carnage to do even more.

While China said it wanted the summit to focus only on trade, the French attacks and US attention on the South China Sea showed this was unrealistic, according to Curtis S. Chin, a former US ambassador to the Manila-based Asian Development Bank.

“One cannot separate the economic and the non-economic in today’s interconnected world,” Chin, now an Asia fellow of the Milken Institute, a non-partisan think-tank, told AFP.

“That’s as true in the battle against ISIS (Islamic State group) as in the search for a peaceful resolution to the many territorial disputes with China that haunt development in the South China Sea.”

China insists it has sovereign rights to nearly all of the sea, even waters approaching the coasts of its Asian neighbours.

The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have overlapping claims to some of the waters, which are home to some of the world’s most important shipping trade routes.

China’s island building in the Spratlys archipelago, which is close to the Philippines, prompted the US military to recently deploy a missile destroyer and B-52 bomber planes to the area.

DFA says row can still be taken up

The Philippines, which has hauled China before a United Nations tribunal over the row, initially promised to respect China’s demand on the Summit’s agenda.

But in his first press conference as official APEC spokesman last Friday, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesman Charles Jose talked at length about China’s “aggressive” actions in the sea.

Jose also said that, while the issue was not on the official agenda, leaders may discuss it at their retreat, one of the summit’s key events where the delegates speak less formally.

Obama will also use both legs of his Asian trip to promote the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) mega-trade deal, which was signed last month by 12 APEC nations but excludes China.

On the sidelines of APEC, the leaders of the TPP nations will meet for the first time since the signing.

“TPP is central to our vision of the region’s future and our place in it,” Rice said.

“(It) is a critical step towards a high-standard free trade area in Asia and the Pacific, and our goal of revitalising the open rules-based economic system that the US has led since World War II.”

China has flagged it will push on with its own effort to steer regional economic rules with a planned Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific.

“We need to actively work for the establishment of FTAAP,” Chinese vice commerce minister Wang Shouwen told a briefing in Beijing.

China sought to champion the FTAAP at last year’s APEC summit, which it hosted, and Wang promised a report would be released in Manila on its progress.

APEC members account for 57 percent of the global economy and 40 percent of the world’s population, with the diverse grouping including Papua New Guinea, Peru, Japan and Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indonesia’s Joko Widodo are the only major leaders of APEC nations who have said they will not attend.

China repeatedly stressed the summit is not an appropriate place to discuss the South China Sea issue, after the U.S. State Department claimed the topic would come up during the gathering.

A State Department spokesman reportedly said the United States and its allies would discuss regional disputes over sovereignty in the South China Sea on the sidelines of the APEC summit, though it is not on the formal agenda of the event, which is scheduled on Nov. 17 to 19 in Manila.

As the most important economic and trade forum in the Asia-Pacific region, APEC has avoided talk of political and security issues, as agreed by most of its members, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular news briefing.

Not discussing sensitive issues is a fundamental precondition for APEC’s existence and development, said Hong, stressing that “APEC is not an appropriate place to discuss the South China Sea issue.”

“As host of the APEC summit, the Philippines has said no political or security issues will be, or should be, on the agenda,” he added.

First APEC VIP: Chile leader

Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet arrived in Manila yesterday afternoon ahead of all Asia-Pacific economic leaders for a summit next week as she undertakes her first state visit to the Philippines.

Aboard a 767 military aircraft, Bachelet, Chile’s first woman President, arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 at 1:24 p.m.

She was welcomed by Vice President Jejomar Binay, Philippine Ambassador to Chile Consuelo Puyat Reyes, Department of Social Welfare and Development Secretary Dinky Soliman, and Foreign Affairs Chief Protocal Maria Aileen Bugarin.

Bachelet and Aquino will discuss major bilateral issues, which include trade and investments as both sides are expected to sign a framework agreement leading to negotiations for a free trade accord between the two countries.

Besides Chile and the Philippines, other APEC members include the Australia, Brunei, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), Thailand, United States and Vietnam. 

http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/obama-to-hound-china-on-sea-row