China, Vietnam, Philippines press maritime claims
MANILA, June 7 |
(Reuters) - A U.S. military presence in the South China Sea can help protect rights of smaller countries, the Philippines said on Tuesday, as China pressed its claim to a long-disputed arhipelago.
China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan all claim territory in the South China Sea, parts of which are believed to be sitting on huge deposits of oil and gas [ID:nSGE6950BX].
China's claim is by far the largest, forming a vast U-shape over most of the sea's 648,000 square miles (1.7 million square km), including the Spratly and Paracel archipelagos.
Philippine Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said the United States had a stake in the stability, security and freedom of the world's second-busiest sea lane.
"The U.S. presence is a deterrence to any unlawful activity in the South China Sea," Gazmin told reporters, urging restraint and diplomacy among the six states with conflicting claims.
Manila has accused China of intrusions into its territory, citing six instances, including one in March when two Chinese patrol boats tried to ram a survey ship. [ID:nSGE72305M] [ID:nL3E7H11FK]
"These are causes of concern, if your territory is violated by another country," Gazmin said, adding China's actions would be the test of its stated aim of wanting to work with other countries.
"The future will tell us if they are committed to what they have told the world, that they are for peaceful resolution of the dispute."
The United States has forward bases in East Asia, allowing its warships and aircraft to visit and hold drills with allies in Southeast Asia. U.S. carrier battle groups have also been making regular visits to the Philippines, where it used to maintain two huge bases until 1992, passing through the South China Sea.
Tensions in the South China Sea have also risen between China and Vietnam. Last month, Vietnam accused Chinese patrol boats of harassing an oil-exploration ship conducting a seismic survey 120 km (80 miles) off Vietnam's south-central coast.
About 300 people marched on the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi on Sunday in a rare public protest to condemn what they called China's violation of Vietnamese sovereignty. [ID:nL3E7H5050]
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei repeated on Tuesday that Beijing had "indisputable sovereignty over the Spratly Islands and nearby seas".
"China and Vietnam have reached a number of important understandings on appropriately resolving the Spratlys issue and protecting the stability of the South China Sea, and we hope that Vietnam will make real efforts to implement these understandings," he told a regular news briefing.
State news agency Xinhua quoted Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi as saying in Hungary on Monday that "attempts to complicate the situation there (in the South China Sea) run contrary to the will of the international community".
"For those who respect the facts, the situation in the South China Sea is stable, and maritime security and freedom of navigation and overflight are (an) obvious reality," it paraphrased him as saying.
(Reporting by Manny Mogato; Additional reporting by Chris Buckley, Sui-Lee Wee and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by John Mair and Nick Macfie)
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