China tries to ease tensions with Southeast Asia

Foreign Ministers and delegate from the 10-member Asean. AP

NUSA DUA—China on Thursday sought to reassure Southeast Asian countries that it was a friendly neighbor, as all sides worked to ease tensions that spiked over a maritime territorial dispute.

Chinese diplomats told their counterparts from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) at a summit in Indonesia that China was intent on improving ties that had soured recently over the West Philippine Sea row.

“We are determined to increase our cooperation with Asean countries. We’re looking to the future, we have a broad, bright future,” Chinese vice foreign minister Liu Zhenmin told reporters on the sidelines of the talks.

“We want to be a good friend, good partner, good neighbor with Asean countries.”

Liu made his comments shortly after Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and his 10 Asean counterparts formally endorsed a set of guidelines to lay the framework for a potential code of conduct in the West Philippine Sea, also known as South China Sea.

Asean members Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia, along with China and Taiwan, have overlapping claims to parts of the West Philippine Sea, an area believed to hold vast oil and gas resources.

The guidelines approved on Thursday were seen as a small but important circuit breaker after the Philippines and Vietnam had accused China of becoming increasingly aggressive in staking its claims to the West Philippine Sea.

“I feel that this is very positive,” Indonesian Foreign Minister and summit chair Marty Natalegawa said of the apparent breakthrough.

However, while Vietnam also voiced cautious optimism on Wednesday over the guidelines, the Philippines maintained that China had not gone far enough and that it still intended to take its case to a United Nations-backed tribunal.

The Philippines had earlier accused Chinese forces of acts such as shooting at Filipino fishermen in the area and placing markers on disputed islands.

Vietnam said in one incident Chinese sailors had boarded a Vietnamese fishing boat and beaten its captain before stealing the crew’s catch.

The foreign ministers are in Nusa Dua on the Indonesian island of Bali as part of a week of diplomacy that will finish on Saturday with the region’s biggest annual security summit, which includes the United States and Russia.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was due to arrive in Bali on Thursday night, after a visit to India where she called on the South Asian nation to take a more assertive leadership role in the region.

Clinton’s comments were widely seen as reflecting a US desire for India to emerge as a counter-weight to China’s fast-expanding power.

Ahead of her arrival, Chinese vice foreign minister Liu spoke in detail about the economic benefits for Southeast Asia of closer ties with China.

“China is becoming the largest trading partner of Asean and Asean is becoming the third largest trade partner of China,” Liu said.

“So cooperation with China is increasing dramatically, developing very fast.”

Earlier Thursday, the 10 Asean foreign ministers met with the Chinese, Japanese and South Korean foreign ministers.

North Korea’s nuclear program, climate change and global food shortages were among the issues discussed during the so-called Asean+3 talks.

Indonesia’s Natalegawa said Asean voiced support for restarting stalled six-nation diplomatic efforts aimed at getting North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions in return for diplomatic and economic benefits.

“We wish very much to see the six-party talks revived,” he said.