US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, attends a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, right, on the sidelines of the Asean Ministerial Meeting in Nusa Dua, Indonesia Friday. AP
NUSA DUA—China warned the United States on Friday not to interfere in territorial disputes with its Asian neighbors over the West Philippine Sea, during talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Clinton said ahead of a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on the Indonesian island of Bali that Washington welcomed a deal between China and Southeast Asia on guidelines meant to reduce tension in the strategic sea.
“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 told reporters.
But during their meeting Yang reminded Clinton that China’s territorial claims in the West Philippine Sea, also known as South China Sea, or anywhere else were none of Washington’s business.
“The Chinese side raised its own concerns, which is that it is important to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China,” Chinese delegation spokesman Liu Weiming told reporters, summarizing Yang’s comments to Clinton.
Liu said Yang and Clinton specifically discussed the West Philippine Sea, a potentially resource-rich waterway stretching from China’s southern coast deep into Southeast Asia.
But in a note of conciliation, he said the United States seemed to understand the “sensitivity of these issues” and the two sides had “agreed to further promote dialogue and mutual understanding”.
The bilateral talks came a day ahead of the Asean Regional Forum, Asia’s main security dialogue involving Southeast Asian nations as well as China, Japan, the United States, Russia and the Koreas.
Nuclear envoys from North and South Korea held talks Friday on the sidelines of the Bali meetings for the first time since six-party nuclear negotiations collapsed in December 2008.
The meeting between South Korea’s Wi Sung-Lac and North Korea’s Ri Yong-Ho was the first between the states’ chief nuclear envoys in more than two years, and was described by a US official in Bali as “quite important”.
The United States says the stalled six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear disarmament cannot resume unless they are preceded by a meaningful dialogue between Pyongyang and Seoul.
North Korea pulled out of the six-nation talks in 2009, accusing the United States of hostility. Since then it has tested a nuclear bomb, fired on a civilian island in the South and allegedly torpedoed a South Korean warship.
China lays historical claim to the West Philippine Sea in its entirety, while the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims to islands and maritime territory in the area.
The Philippines and Vietnam have expressed anger in recent months over what they call China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the area, such as harassment of fishermen and oil exploration vessels.
China and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) announced a “breakthrough” in the dispute on Wednesday, endorsing a set of guidelines designed to reduce tensions in the waters.
But, almost 10 years in the making, the non-binding guidelines were quickly criticized by Philippine diplomats as lacking teeth, while officials from all sides said a binding code of conduct was still a long way over the horizon.
And in comments likely to irk China, a US official travelling with Clinton said she would tell her Asian counterparts on Saturday that the United States had a “strategic stake” in the West Philippine Sea.
In remarks to Asean foreign ministers on Friday, Clinton also said the “sea-lanes of this region… have become some of the world’s most vibrant trade and energy routes, the lifeblood of global commerce”.
Clinton arrived in Bali late Thursday for a series of meetings with East Asian ministers, fresh from a visit to India where she urged New Delhi to be more assertive in Asia.
Her visit is seen within the context of Washington’s efforts to deepen and expand its reach in Asia, where many countries are growing increasingly uneasy over China’s burgeoning economic and military might.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said Manila, a close US ally, “strongly believes that only through collaboration with the US could we deal with regional security issues”.