The captain of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS George Washington
Thursday said the U.S. Navy’s presence in Asia would help safeguard the
“freedom of navigation,” alluding to China’s claims of sovereignty over
international waters in the region, the AFP reported.
"One of the reasons we
deploy throughout the region is so we can carry forth the banner of freedom of
navigation. It is very important to us given the trade that travels throughout
the region on the seas," Captain Gregory Fenton was quoted as saying by
the AFP.
He added that the U.S. was not
taking sides in the sea disputes between several Asian nations but would make
sure that the sea routes remained open.
Fenton said the supercarrier,
which is on a port call to Manila, was there as part of its routine and had no
connection to the territorial dispute in the South China Sea between the
Philippines, a U.S. ally, and China.
China's growing maritime
influence in the region has the neighboring nations, including Brunei,
Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan, worried over territorial confrontations. Beijing
lays claim to almost the entire South China Sea, including what is recognized
by the U.N. as the Exclusive Economic Zone of other neighbors.
The members of the Association on
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), meanwhile, have started discussions on a code
of conduct in the South China Sea ahead of the next month's ASEAN summit.
“ASEAN, China, all the others —
everyone wants a positive outcome. Everyone understands the need for regional
peace and harmony, and I believe that we will all work towards that,"
Singapore's Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam, who is on a visit to Indonesia, said
Thursday at a joint press conference with his Indonesian counterpart Marty
Natalegawa, the Straits Times reported.
ASEAN failed to reach a common
ground over the sea dispute at a regional summit held in Cambodia in July.
Though the disagreement was attributed
to the claims of overlapping maritime boundaries of the Philippines, Vietnam,
Brunei and Malaysia in certain parts of the South China Sea, it also exposed
how the Chinese pressure had polarized regional politics.
The Philippines and Vietnam, which
were involved in a dispute with China recently over the ownership of the
Scarborough Shoal, have sought ASEAN's support in compelling Beijing to accept
the code of conduct.
Natalegawa had slammed the
disagreement within the bloc as "perplexing" and "utterly
irresponsible."
In September, U.S. Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton offered U.S. support for a regionally endorsed six-point
plan for the implementation of a code of conduct in the South China Sea while
adding that Washington did not take a position on competing territorial claims.
"The United States has a
national interest, as every country does, in the maintenance of peace and
stability, respect for international law, freedom of navigation, unimpeded
lawful commerce in the South China Sea,” she had said.
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