The United States and China on Friday sought to calm tensions over the South China Sea, saying new conduct guidelines between Beijing and Southeast Asian nations marked progress toward resolving territorial disputes peacefully.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, meeting at Asia’s biggest security conference, appeared eager to downplay strains between the world’s largest economy and Asia’s emerging economic superpower. “I want to commend China and ASEAN for working so closely together to include implementation guidelines for the declaration of conduct in the South China Sea,” Clinton said at the meeting on Indonesian island Bali.
China acquiesced to the new guidelines on Thursday, in what may have been an attempt to mollify ASEAN enough to take the topic off the table before Clinton’s arrival, one analyst said.
Yang, hosting Clinton for bilateral talks on the sidelines of the ASEAN security forum, said Beijing agreed that the guidelines were significant. “It will go a long way to maintaining peace and stability and good neighbourliness in the region, and this will also provide favourable conditions for the proper handling of settlements of the disputes among the claimants,” Yang said.
China, Taiwan, and four ASEAN members — the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam — all claim territory in the oil-and gas-rich waters and Washington has irritated Beijing by declaring it also has a national interest at stake in ensuring freedom of navigation and trade. China has also accused the U.S. of triggering tension in the region by holding naval drills, and President Barack Obama’s meeting with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama last week has added further strains.
SETTING DISPUTES ASIDE: But on Friday, Clinton and Yang appeared ready to set aside these differences, at least in public.
Yang did not mention Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama, regarded by Beijing as a violent separatist, and instead focused on U.S.-Chinese cooperation on a range of issues including efforts to bring North Korea back into six-party negotiations on its nuclear programme.
“China and the United States and the other members of the six-party talks need to work together … to promote a better atmosphere, a good dialogue among the parties concerned,” Yang said.
