US, Australia warn China on sea access

WASHINGTON — The United States and its Pacific ally Australia warned China on Tuesday that they remain committed to freedom of navigation in the waters of the South China Sea.

China has maritime territorial disputes with several of its Southeast Asian neighbors and is trying to bolster its claim by building artificial islands.

According to senior US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, Washington is drawing up a plan to sail by these islands in the coming days or weeks.

The warship or ships would pass within the 12-mile territorial limit China claims around the structures to demonstrate that US commanders do not recognize it.

Meanwhile, after an annual two-day meeting, the US and Australian defense and foreign minsters said they do not have a view on the legal arguments of the dispute.

But they warned that they would continue to support freedom of navigation and send ships and planes through what they regard as international waters in the region.

US Defense Secretary Ash Carter joined Secretary of State John Kerry and their Australian counterparts Marise Payne and Julie Bishop in Boston.

“Australia and America both want to sustain and renew an Asia-Pacific regional security architecture where everyone rises and everyone prospers,” Carter said.

“But make no mistake,“ he warned “the United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, as we do around the world.

“And the South China Sea is not and will not be an exception.”

Carter said this was not just a US commitment, but was shared by Washington’s major regional allies Japan, the Philippines, India and Vietnam.

Bishop said Washington and Canberra were “on the same page” over the dispute.

“We do not take sides on the various territorial claims, but we urge all parties to not act unilaterally, to not act in a way that would escalate tensions,” she said.

Bishop expressed support for “the principles of freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight.”

“We continue to work together to press those principles on all claimants in the South China Sea and elsewhere,” she added.

On Saturday, China vowed to continue building on the disputed reefs and said construction had finished on two lighthouses in areas claimed by smaller rivals.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam – members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – claim parts of the sea. Taiwan is a sixth claimant.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has said Beijing will not militarize its new structures, but satellite images show they have runways that could be used by air force jets.

Navy to patrol disputed islands

The United States has been briefing its allies in Asia on plans to conduct naval patrols near artificial islands built by China in the disputed South China Sea, a move that could escalate tensions with Beijing after President Xi’s recent visit to Washington, US and Asian officials have said.

The “freedom of navigation” patrols, which would come within 12 nautical miles of at least one of the islands, are intended to challenge China’s efforts to claim large parts of the strategic waterway by enlarging rocks and submerged reefs into islands big enough for military airstrips, radar equipment and lodging for soldiers, the officials said.

Although China claims much of the South China Sea as sovereign territory, the 12-mile zone around the new islands is particularly delicate because international law says such artificial islands do not have sovereign rights up to the 12-mile limit.

The United States has refrained from venturing that close to Chinese-occupied islands in the South China Sea since at least 2012. In May, a US Navy surveillance plane flew near three of China’s five artificial islands but did not go within their 12-mile territorial zones. Chinese navy radio operators warned the Americans to leave the area.

Officials in the Philippines said they had been told of the planned patrols in the past several days, and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, chairman of the national defense and security committee, said Monday that he welcomed the decision.

Carter and Kerry were scheduled to discuss the patrols with their counterparts from Australia on Monday and Tuesday in Boston.

The head of the US Pacific Command, Adm. Harry Harris Jr., whom the White House asked several months ago to offer options for how to respond to the Chinese actions in the South China Sea, was also scheduled to attend the meetings.

The senior adviser on China at the National Security Council, Daniel Kritenbrink, told a gathering of US analysts of the region at a meeting in Washington that the White House had decided to proceed with the patrols, according to a participant who requested anonymity to discuss a closed-door briefing.

Kritenbrink did not specify when the patrols would take place, but he suggested that they had been delayed so as not to disrupt Xi’s visit, the participant said.

The Obama administration and America’s allies in Asia have debated at length how best to respond to China’s moves in the South China Sea, with some urging patrols to push back against Beijing, and with others fearful that the Chinese might use the patrols as justification for a further military buildup.

The Chinese have indicated that they will respond to US warships entering the 12-mile territorial waters around the artificial islands.

“There is no way for us to condone infringement of China’s territorial sea and air space by any country under the pretext of maintaining the freedom of navigation and overflight,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Friday. China is “severely concerned” about reports that the United States planned patrols around the artificial islands in the Spratly archipelago, the ministry’s spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, said. Five other governments also make territorial claims in those waters.

During a news conference with President Barack Obama at the White House, Xi said China had no intention of militarizing islands in the South China Sea.  

But exactly what Xi meant was unclear, US officials said, because he had not said anything like that in the private meetings with Obama and his senior aides.

Stick with US, Enrile tells AFP

Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile recommended to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to stick with the United States as an ally during the defense department’s budget hearing yesterday at the Senate.

“We have no preparedness. That’s the fact.  No preparedness whatsoever,” Enrile said after he emerged from grilling defense and military officials, including Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin.

At the hearing for the Department of National Defense’s  P158.8-billion budget for 2016, Enrile lashed out at the officials for being unable to explain the military’s preparedness in defending Philippine territory from China and other external threats. He also asked the AFP about internal security concerns. 

“How important is our Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States? What is your assessment of the US? Are they committed to the international order or are they going to change their position that will affect us?” Enrile, defense minister during the Marcos regime, asked. 

Enrile also asked Gazmin to make his own assessment after the defense secretary quoted the commitment of US President Barrack Obama on its “iron-clad” vow to protect the Philippines from China. 

“We have to assess this by ourselves, not by what the political leaders say,” he added, noting America would likely revert to its position pre-World War 2. “What will be that impact on us?”

He said the external threat and eventual remapping of the world can only be handled by a “sophisticated” AFP.

“In the days when it will be critical in this country, just like in 1941, I would stay with America.  

“Without the United States today, you will see the Chinese Liberation Army in the Philippines,” he said, adding that the US is in the region, not for the Philippines, but for economic reasons. 

During the budget hearing, Gazmin admitted that the Philippines would not be able to attain AFP modernization within the target date.

Enrile also pressed the top defense officials to “study more” for the sake of country, and “stop playing golf” so that the Philippines will have a better strategy in handling its territorial dispute with China over the West Philippine Sea. 

Enrile manifested intent to ask more questions even as Senate finance committee chairman Loren Legarda recommended the budget for the DND and its attached offices for plenary deliberations at past 6:30 p.m.  – Christina Mendez, AP