US Urges Asia for a Joint Move in South China Sea
The commander of the U.S. Navy Seventh Fleet Vice Admiral Robert Thomas urged Southeast Asian nations to form a combined maritime force to patrol areas of the South China Sea where territorial tensions flare with China, reports Bloomberg.
While reassuring allies in the region it will back them against China’s assertions to about four-fifths of the sea, Thomas said that countries could streamline cooperation on maritime security while respecting sovereignty and coastal space.
China has ratcheted up pressure on some Association of Southeast Asian Nations members, and has accelerated reclamation work on reefs in the waters criss-crossed by claims from Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei, the Philippines and Malaysia.
In just a few months, Beijing has transformed a number of tiny reefs and rocks in the South China Sea into six small military bases, intimidating smaller countries such as the Philippines and Vietnam and fortifying an area through which a third of the world’s commercial container ships transit.
Meanwhile, China's state news agency accused the U.S. of having a "pirate-style sense of insecurity" in response to recent comments from Washington expressing concern over Beijing's territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea.
It was irked with remarks by U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki that Chinese land reclamation and construction work on disputed South China Sea islands were "fueling greater anxiety within the region about China's intentions."
Washington said it will continue to raise its concerns with China and urged all parties to avoid destabilizing activities. "As we've said many times, we encourage all claimants to pursue peaceful and diplomatic approaches to maritime and territorial disputes in the South China Sea," Psaki said.
Xinhua labeled Psaki's comments "strikingly biased and by no means conducive to solving the disputes and bolstering peace and stability."
According to a report in Washington Post, the United States does not have a stake in the sovereignty claims at issue, but it has an important interest in ensuring that China does not use coercion to change the status quo. The Chinese trajectory suggests that it intends to do just that. Halting Chinese land reclamation and base-building would be difficult, but other steps can be taken to dissuade Beijing from moving down the path of coercion.
