Barack Obama may not like it, but its all about China at ASEAN

Πηγή: newKerala
By ANI
Nov 19 2011

Bali (Indonesia), Nov.19 : "Outside forces" had no excuse to get involved in a complex dispute over the South China Sea, said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, throwing the gauntlet at the U.S.

An unofficial grouping of South East Asian nations is being egged on by the United States to edge out Chinese dominance in the shipping lanes of the South China Sea.

Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei are pressurizing China to be more accomodative and discuss the issue openly so as to come to some solution.

The Philippines has called on the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to facilitate talks with China over disputed areas of the sea that contain oil and gas resources.

President Obama, who is attending the East Asia Summit for the first time, said the ASEAN meet “can be the premier area for us to be able to work together on a wide range of issues: maritime security or nonproliferation.”

He said this at the beginning of a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday.

Meanwhile, China is not at all keen to discuss the South China Sea at either the ASEAN meet or at the East Asia Summit, both of which are to be held here in Bali.
ASEAN is not an appropriate forum to discuss the South China Sea dispute, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said yesterday in Beijing.

China has the most extensive historic sovereignty claims in the potentially oil and gas rich South China Sea, including uninhabited atolls near the equatorial northern coast of Borneo.

Claimants to the sea have been trying to cool tension after a series of disputes this year, including when Chinese patrol boats threatened to ram a Philippine-contracted survey ship in the Reed Bank in March.

China and Vietnam last month signed an agreement seeking to contain the dispute, but the wording was vague and contained little new that the two sides had not agreed on previously.

"It''s really only a question of time before we see another incident of the kind we saw earlier this year," said Ian Storey, a fellow at Singapore''s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

"China opposes any discussion of the issue at these kinds of forums," he added. "It opposes the ''internationalisation'' of the problem. That''s a limiting factor because China is obviously the key player in all of this and if it doesn''t want to talk you''re not going to make much headway."

China insists the dispute can only be resolved by bilateral talks between the parties directly concerned and has reacted angrily to attempts by the United States or old enemy Japan to get involved. India too has entered the frame via an oil exploration agreement with Vietnam.

With U.S. bases near Japan and South Korea, China fears it could be threatened if the United States stepped up its naval presence in the South China Sea. However, expecting ASEAN to play a role, could also be wishful thinking.

"ASEAN does not even have a common stand on the South China Sea dispute and has a poor track record in settling issues like this," said Rommel Banlaoi, Executive Director of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Premier Wen Jiabao assured the Southeast Asian nations that Beijing has no aggressive intentions in the South China Sea.

"China will never seek hegemony and we are against any hegemonic behavior," Wen said when addressing the ASEAN Summit meet here in Bali.

"China will forever be a good neighbor, good friend and good partner of ASEAN," Wen added.

He also announced that Beijing will establish a China-ASEAN maritime cooperation fund of 473 million dollars. China will offer ASEAN another 10 billion dollars in loans, on top of a pledge of 15 billion dollars of loans made two years ago.

Trade volume between China and ASEAN is likely to exceed 350 billion dollars this year, Wen said.

China has become ASEAN''s top trading partner, while ASEAN ranked third in China''s trading list.

President Barack Obama, who is here to attend the East Asia Summit, held unscheduled talks on Saturday with China''s Premier Wen Jiabao, after a week of slanging matches between the two nations over the South China Sea issue.

Obama is keen to reassert American presence in the Asia Pacific region as a counterbalance to China''s growing might in the region.

ASEAN countries have mixed feelings about the two super powers using this region as a battleground to settle scores.

China, U.S. play down tensions at Asian security summit

Πηγή: Reuters

By Andrew Quinn

Fri Jul 22, 2011 2:30am EDT

NUSA DUA, Indonesia, July 22 - The United States and China moved to repair strained ties on Friday, saying tensions over the South China Sea were easing with new conduct guidelines between Beijing and Southeast Asian nations.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, meeting at Asia's biggest security conference, appeared eager to ensure the dispute over the oil and gas-rich waters did not become another source of friction between the world's largest economy and the second-largest.

"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 the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

China acquiesced to the new guidelines on Thursday after almost a decade of deadlock, in what may have been an attempt to mollify ASEAN enough to take the topic off the table before Clinton's arrival. China, Taiwan, and four ASEAN members -- the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam -- all claim territory in the South China Sea and Washington has irritated Beijing by declaring it also has a national interest at stake in ensuring freedom of navigation and trade.

China says it has had undisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea since ancient times, and is adamant about not involving other parties to help resolve the matter.

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.

Foreign minister Yang, hosting Clinton for bilateral talks on the sidelines of the ASEAN security forum, said the South China Sea guidelines would "go a long way to maintaining peace and stability and good neighborliness in the region."

Diplomats said the guidelines were only a small, but important, step toward resolving one of the region's longest-standing disputes.

"If parties concerned abide by the guidelines, certainly tensions will be reduced," said a senior Asian diplomat.

"We have to engage with China so China takes the right course. China has to understand international rules and the South China Sea dispute is an important test case." SETTING

DISPUTES ASIDE

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 program.

U.S. officials said Clinton's meeting in Bali with Yang marked the start of several months of high-profile U.S. diplomacy in the region.

Both Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao are due to attend a meeting of the APEC Asia economic forum in Honolulu later this year, and Obama will also attend November's East Asia Summit in Bali for the first time, giving him another chance to touch base with the Chinese leader.

Clinton will fly on Sunday from Bali to Hong Kong -- the first U.S. secretary of state to visit since 1997 when China resumed control of the city from Britain -- and will stop by the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on Monday for a meeting with Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo.

Clinton is due to give a speech in Hong Kong on Monday that will emphasize the U.S. view of economic ties with China, which have been a serious source of tension in the past.

Washington has urged Beijing to allow its yuan currency to appreciate against the dollar to combat a hugely lopsided trade balance, and the United States has also taken a firm line against Chinese policies of "indigenous innovation" policies.

Under these rules, Beijing makes foreign companies' access to government equipment and technology orders hinge on their transferring patents and other intellectual property to China.