US won’t tolerate navigation curbs

“These are intrinsic rights that we all share”, Kerry said.

India supported the “freedom of navigation in global waters, including the South China Sea, the right of passage and overflight, unimpeded commerce and access to resources in accordance with principles of worldwide law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)”.

His comments were directed primarily at China, which has been engaged in massive reclamation projects in areas contested by its smaller neighbors.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia, on August. 5, 2015.

The delay is an indication of the divisions inside the Affiliation of South East Asian Nations(ASEAN) in coping with China’s assertiveness within the South China Sea, particularly Beijing’s current development of synthetic islands within the waterway.

China has said the outposts will have undefined military purposes, as well as help with maritime search and rescue, disaster relief, and navigation, according to Reuters.

Mr Kerry weighed into the conflict at the summit, where south-east Asian nations have traditionally conducted business with polite diplomatic consensus, accusing China of duplicitous behaviour over its claim to nearly all of the South China Sea. Still, according to a recent article in Politico, the White House, which wants to avoid openly antagonizing China, is in a dispute with Naval commanders who want to sail U.S. navy ships into the disputed area as a demonstration of that freedom.

China came under mounting pressure on Wednesday over its land reclamation in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) with both the United States and Japan criticizing it for militarizing the disputed waters.

Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei – all ASEAN members – also have various claims as does Taiwan, many of which overlap.

Kerry added the construction of facilities for military activities in or around the islands “only raises tensions and the destabilizing risk of militarization by other claimant states”.

China has shown no sign of halting its construction on artificial islands in disputed areas.

But they said there had been pushback from Beijing’s traditional allies among the association.

The tug-of-war raised the spectre of a bitter 2012 ASEAN meeting hosted by Cambodia, when the bloc was unable for the first time in its four-decade history to issue a joint statement.

Despite not mentioning China by name, Beijing expressed its own “serious concern” over the statement.

“China and ASEAN are capable enough to work together to maintain the peace and stability in the South China Sea“.

“If there isn’t a genuine effort… then next year, obviously I have the distinct ability to be able to make a different decision”, he said.

“Japan has been cooperating with the United States to hype up the “China threat”, making noise for their alliance to interfere in the South China Sea“, Su Xiaohui, a senior researcher at the Foreign Ministry-backed China Institute of global Studies, wrote.

Aman underlined ministers had also agreed it was imperative that the matter was handled constructively, so that matters did not escalate into a situation that might undermine peace, security and stability.

In addition to the South China Sea, the ASEAN diplomats discussed a number of other issues.