World
Kerry Urges Beijing to Halt ‘Problematic Actions’ in South China Sea
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
AUGUST 5, 2015
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — With tensions mounting over China’s land reclamation projects in disputed South China Sea waters, Secretary of State John Kerry urged his Chinese counterpart on Wednesday to halt “problematic actions” in the area to provide an opportunity for diplomacy, a senior State Department official said.
Mr. Kerry met with China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, in Kuala Lumpur on the sidelines of a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that has been marked by concern over Beijing’s effort to pile sand around reefs in the South China Sea and to construct buildings, harbors, radar towers and airstrips there. More than 2,000 acres of artificial islands have been created, according to United States officials.
Mr. Kerry told Mr. Wang that the United States was concerned about the large-scale nature of China’s land reclamation and the “militarization of features there,” said the State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under the agency’s protocol for briefing reporters.
Mr. Kerry later told diplomats here that he had a “good meeting” with Mr. Wang and expressed hope that the diplomats might make headway in defusing the South China Sea disputes in the coming days.
“We want to ensure the security of critical sea lanes and fishing grounds, and we want to see that disputes in the area are managed peacefully and on the basis of international law,” Mr. Kerry said.
Though Mr. Kerry believes that his conversation with Mr. Wang was constructive, the two diplomats did not agree on any specific proposals, American officials said.
Mr. Wang’s public comments about the South China Sea this week did not provide diplomats here with much ground for optimism. Striking a more conciliatory tone on Wednesday, Mr. Wang told a reporter that China has stopped work on land reclamation. But he did not commit Beijing to abandoning, or halting construction on, the artificial islands already formed.
Of the nations represented here, the Philippines and Vietnam — which have claims to South China Sea waters that overlap with China’s — have been among the most vocal about China’s recent actions.
“As we speak, we see no letup on the unilateral and aggressive activities of our northern neighbor in the South China Sea,” Albert F. del Rosario, the Philippines’ foreign secretary, said on Tuesday.
Mr. del Rosario has said the Philippines would halt its own land reclamation work if China would do so. But such a freeze, he has argued, should not legitimize China’s recent construction.
For all the Obama administration’s talk of shifting more attention to Asia, however, the Syria crisis remains an important agenda item for Mr. Kerry. On Wednesday afternoon, he met with Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, who is also attending the meeting here.
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