Maritime Dispute an Issue for Entire ASEAN, Says US
The South China Sea took center stage at the Bilateral Strategic Dialogue between the United States and the Philippines held in Manila, as China continues to engage in "massive" construction activities in the disputed area.
Both the countries jointly expressed their concern over recent Chinese activities in the South China Sea which they claimed were inconsistent with the 2002 ASEAN-China Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and international law.
After calling China’s activities in the South China Sea “wholesale reclamation,” the US government said that Beijing’s behavior is a concern not just for the Philippines and the United States but all of Southeast Asia.
Philippine officials blasted China for its reclamation efforts in the disputed South China Sea as the United States and the Philippines ended their two-day strategic dialogue in Manila.
“This is not an issue exclusively for the Philippines and the US but for all 10 ASEAN countries, to see the importance of finding rules-based, peaceful resolution,” US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel said.
He was referring to sovereignty questions as well as “behavior problems” that threaten the stability and congeniality of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Russel said the South China Sea dispute is an "ongoing concern" of the US but the two countries should exercise "maximum restraint" in favor of diplomacy.
China has increased its presence in the South China Sea by building a military airstrip on one of the islands in the area despite the Philippines raising the territorial dispute at the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).
Philippine Defense Undersecretary Pio Lorenzo Batino calls development at the reef, which in November appeared to be expanding to accommodate an airstrip, “a very serious concern.” But the Philippines, with one of the smallest military budgets in Asia, is powerless to stop any of it.
“We have to increase our capabilities and that will only come through modernization," Batino said. "This is a realization of course ... of the needed modernization that we needed to implement earlier.”
