MANILA, Philippines — The long-standing territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea was among the issues discussed in the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue that started on Tuesday.
In a special press briefing, a senior US State Department official confirmed that the delegation led by Secretary of State John Kerry discussed a number of the recent tensions in maritime issues with Chinese officials.
These issues include China's sea disputes with Vietnam, the Philippines and Japan.
The official said that the US delegation "was very consistent" in the discussions that China should not continue its perceived aggression in the disputed waters.
"This does not benefit China at all, and we have discussed both in the past and in these sessions that we see that there may be this pattern developing – a pattern of aggressive behavior – and it certainly does not benefit China in the long run," said the official, who was not identified in the transcript of the press briefing.
While maintaining that the US is not taking sides, the official said they want to explain why they are concerned so much about China's behavior and why they view it as "potentially destabilizing or threatening."
The official said they prefer to discuss these kinds of things over China's possible consequences for a certain action.
"What's important right now is for China to sort of modify its behavior," the official said.
The goal of the US is for China to seek peaceful resolutions, the official said, such as the use of international law and legal mechanisms to settle the territorial disputes.
According to an Associated Press report, China and the US will talk about 60 topics during their meeting from Tuesday night to Thursday.
Issues set to be discussed include climate change, Chinese industrial cyber-espionage, economic friction and the threat posed by nuclear-armed North Korea. -Louis Bacani