Third party in South China Sea claims to complicate issue, says envoy

MANILA, Philippines - China’s top diplomat in Manila warned against third party interference in territorial claims in the South China Sea, saying it might “magnify” the issue and make the dispute more complicated and difficult to settle.

“The South China Sea issue is an issue between China and relevant claiming countries including the Philippines, Vietnam and other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members,” Chinese Ambassador Liu Jianchao said.

“We are against any involvement of a third party which might magnify or internationalize the issue which will make the issue more complicated and harder to settle,” Liu told a media forum the other day.

Liu said navigation freedom and security have always been observed in the South China Sea.

“I don’t know why somebody raised this question because this is a peaceful place, navigation is free and secure so there is no reason why such a claim be put hold,” he said.

Liu noted that the Washington-based think tank Heritage Foundation had declared support for US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s statements during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum (ARF) in Hanoi, Vietnam last Sept. 24.

Clinton said staking US interest in the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea would make a common cause with America’s friends and allies in the region.

Liu said the US is not a claimant party in the South China Sea.

“It’s very difficult to find an early settlement because there are big differences but at the moment there is peace and security. To win prosperity, the best way for parties is to have cooperation. When we have cooperation on the basis of shelving the differences, we are in a better position to preserve peace and to avoid conflict,” he said.

Liu said China is ready to work with claimant countries on the basis of the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.

The Code of Conduct was entered into by members of the ASEAN and China in the effort to reduce tensions and peacefully resolve claims in the South China Sea as well as to improve the general political climate in the disputed islands.

“And we will be willing to conduct and to carry out cooperation with claiming countries in this part of the sea where we have dispute, so let cooperation prevail,” Liu said.

The Heritage Foundation said that working with the Philippines and Vietnam to build maritime defense capacity is one of the additional actions the US needs to do to really support its interests in the South China Sea.

Walter Lohman, director of the Asian Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation, said before the Sept. 24 ASEAN-US Summit in New York, the Obama administration has to build international political pressure on the Chinese while effectively blocking their capacity to impose sovereignty by a demonstration or actual use of force.

Lohman said the meeting in New York between US President Barack Obama and the ASEAN leaders was an excellent opportunity to demonstrate US resolve at the highest level.