U.S. defence chief visits aircraft carrier in South China Sea

U.S. aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is now slated to transit through the South China Sea on Thursday with Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter on board.

China’s claims in the South China Sea are disputed by several countries in the region, including Malaysia. Beijing launched a massive building project a year ago to transform the submerged reefs into islands that can support runways and other facilities, ignoring competing claims to the outcroppings by the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan and other Asian nations.

Officials this week said the United States and Japan were pushing to get concerns about the South China Sea included in the joint statement.

Carter said he has accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jingping to visit that nation, and looks forward to making the trip in the spring.

A USA official said the United States felt that “no statement is better than one that avoids the important issue of China’s reclamation and militarization in the South China Sea”.

Zhang Junshe, a senior researcher at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute, said that Washington has showed hypocrisy on the South China Sea issue.

He called it – quote – “a sign of the critical role the United States’ military power plays in a very consequential region”.

He said his flight was routine, but it drew a strong rebuke from China.

A few of them, notably Myanmar and Laos, have economic and political ties to Beijing and are reluctant to anger China, especially when they have no territorial claims of their own in the South China Sea.

Leaders of the countries attending meet again at ASEAN and East Asia summits this month and Hishammuddin said those talks would give more opportunities to resolve differences.

It said a consensus had been reached with ASEAN countries on the wording but that “individual countries outside the region” – an apparent reference to the United States – attempted to “forcefully add” new wording.

Asserting that maritime security is a common challenge, he said “the situation in the South China Sea and recent developments there have attracted concern”. READ BLOG:risky tussle: All parties to the South China Sea dispute must exercise restraint China and the ASEAN countries had inked the declaration in 2002, which is not legally binding, to ensure peaceful resolution of disputes in SCS. These are freedom of navigation patrols and present no threat to anyone.

“But in the actual demonstration of freedom of navigation, I think the reverse question now applies: Is the US doing enough?”

The Lassen’s commanding officer, Robert C Francis Jr, said the ship came within six to seven nautical miles of the nearest Chinese formation during the patrol.