China opposes outside interference in South China Sea issue: Vice FM

“The landmark ruling in July, which is binding, helped clarify maritime rights in the region”, Obama said during a summit of Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) leaders. The South China Sea is believed to be rich with deposits of oil and gas.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also singled out China and expressed “serious concerns” about Beijing’s increasingly muscular claims in the waters.

Members of the EAS are the Asean member countries, Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, the United States of America and Russian Federation.

ASEAN leaders on Wednesday released a statement saying they were “seriously concerned” over recent developments in the sea.

Obama stressed that the United States will continue working with Asean to ensure peaceful resolution of these territorial disputes, keeping in mind the worldwide tribunal’s verdict that favoured Manila and rejected China’s historical claims in the region.

The East Asia Summit, a forum of leaders from 10 ASEAN members, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, India and the United States, reviews and discusses future direction of cooperation as well as exchanges views on regional and worldwide issues.

Officials said that talks on Wednesday between the Asean leaders and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang had gone smoothly.

However, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said the discussion on the conflict at the event was “untimely and inappropriate”.

“I think Asean realised that regional peace and stability should be their priority and their cooperation and dialogue with China is essential to finding a solution to the maritime dispute”, he said. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have contesting claims on these waters.

The verdict by an global tribunal in The Hague said China’s claims to most of the waters had no legal basis.

The leaders agreed to establish a hotline to China this week. “History and facts have repeatedly showed that the South China Sea can only be peaceful and stable so long as the regional countries themselves get hold of the key to fixing the problems”, Mr Li said.

According to the Guardian, although the ministry did not elaborate, such wording is typically used by Chinese leaders for countries outside the region to be directly involved in the dispute.

The Philippines military this week released images of Chinese ships it said were capable of dredging sand around the Scarborough Shoal – a small but strategic reef and fertile fishing ground 130 miles (200 km) west from the Philippine island of Luzon.

Beijing has rejected the ruling as a farce, and Manila has not actively tried to push its legal claim while Mr Duterte attempts to engineer a face-saving “soft landing” for both countries.

“We should be highly alert against the mischief-making intentions of people who spread such groundless information in such situations”, he added.

Duterte “has been sending messages for improving relations with China since he took office”.