MANILA, Nov. 18 (UPI/Elizabeth Shim) ─ The United States and the Philippines are stepping up pressure on China’s land reclamation activities in the South China Sea – a day after President Barack Obama boarded a Philippine warship and pledged to defend the Philippines.
Speaking on the sidelines of the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Obama said Beijing should end land reclamation over reefs in the disputed Spratly Islands, the BBC reported, and that he and Philippine President Benigno Aquino III were in agreement about resolving the controversy.
“We discussed the impact of China’s reclamation and construction activities on regional stability. We agreed on the need for bold steps to lower tensions, including pledging to halt further reclamation, new construction and militarization of disputed areas in the South China Sea,” Obama said Wednesday, according to the Philippines’ GMA Network.
Aquino agreed, and said, “I take this opportunity to reiterate the Philippines’ view that the freedom of navigation and over flight in the South China Sea must be continuously upheld, consistent with international law.”
China began construction work on the disputed reefs in 2013, and the most recent satellite images indicated China had completed building artificial islands on Fiery Cross and Subi Reefs and was building what could be a runway on Mischief Reef.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was in Manila for the APEC summit, did not raise the issue of South China Sea tensions on Wednesday, focusing instead on a rival trade agreement to the Trans-Pacific Partnership that could speed up regional economic integration known as the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, or FTAAP.
“We need to encourage equal-footed participation and extensive consultation and make free trade arrangements open and inclusive,” Xi said, according to Philippines News Agency.
But in Beijing on Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Obama should not intervene in a regional territorial dispute and that Washington should “stop heightening tensions.”
“No country has the right to point fingers at China’s construction activities,” Hong said.
