US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is headed to Beijing after talks
in emerging US ally Indonesia where she voiced hope for progress in managing
soaring tensions in the South China Sea.
Clinton, on her third visit to
the region since May, encouraged a united front among the 10-member Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as she stood firm in calling for freedom of
navigation in the strategic sea.
The top US diplomat sounded an
optimistic note in Southeast Asia's largest nation Indonesia, where President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said ties between the two nations were good but could
be strengthened.
"Of course, we have to do
more ... for further enhancing and strengthening our bilateral friendship and
cooperation," he told Clinton, who headed from the meeting for a visit to
the headquarters of the ASEAN bloc before departing for Beijing.
Clinton earlier said she saw
positive signs in Southeast Asia and was optimistic over progress on a code of
conduct governing the South China Sea in time for an Asia summit in Cambodia in
November to be attended by President Barack Obama.
"I think we can make
progress before the East Asia Summit and it's certainly in everyone's interest
that we do so," she told a joint news conference with Indonesian Foreign
Minister Marty Natalegawa on Monday.
Clinton refrained from
criticising China directly before her visit but signalled unease over Beijing's
recent establishment of a remote garrison in the South China Sea where six
nations have often overlapping claims.
"The United States believes
very strongly that no party should take any steps that would increase tensions
or do anything that would be viewed as coercive or intimidating to advance
their territorial claims," she said.
The United States has taken a
vocal stance on the South China Sea - through which half of the world's cargo
flows - as the Philippines and Vietnam accuse a rising Beijing of intimidation
to exert its claims.
But when Clinton visited Cambodia
in July, ASEAN foreign ministers for the first time failed to reach a joint
communique at their annual meeting as the nations stood divided on how to deal
with an increasingly active China.
At the ASEAN headquarters in
Jakarta on Tuesday, Clinton said the US backed the bloc's goal of greater
integration.
"We want to do all we can to
advance ASEAN's goal of integration because we have an interest in strengthening
ASEAN's ability to address regional challenges in an effective, comprehensive
way," she said.
The United States and its
partners believe a code of conduct would establish dialogue and mechanisms to
manage disputes in the South China Sea and prevent flare-ups of the kind seen
recently from escalating into full-blown conflicts.
In June, Vietnam passed a law
proclaiming its jurisdiction over the Paracel and Spratly islands, triggering
Chinese protests, and a stand-off between Chinese and Philippine vessels at
Scarborough Shoal inflamed tensions.
In an effort that heartened
Clinton after the divisive meeting in July, Indonesia's foreign minister
spearheaded a recent statement of ASEAN principles that includes the 10 nations
working together on a code of conduct.
US relations with China have been
fraught with tensions, despite what US officials say is quiet cooperation in
several areas including on pressuring Iran over its disputed nuclear program.
Chinese state media have accused
Clinton of trying to contain the Asian power's rise. China claims most of the
South China Sea and has generally preferred to negotiate individually with each
nation instead of a united ASEAN.
Clinton's last visit to China in
May was overshadowed by a crisis over prominent dissident Chen Guangcheng, who
fled to the US embassy after reporting beatings under arbitrary house arrest in
his home in Shandong province.
China eventually allowed the
blind activist, who angered authorities by exposing forced abortions under the
one-child-only policy, to leave for New York to study.
A US official said that Clinton
was expected to discuss human rights but that it was unclear if Chen's case
would again come up.
SHAUN TANDON
AAP
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