Disagreement between the United States and China over how to address rival claims in the South China Sea marred a gathering of Southeast Asian defence officials on Wednesday, with a joint statement scrapped after ministers failed to agree on its wording.
The United States and its allies had pressed for a mention of disputes in the South China Sea in the statement while a senior US defence official said China had lobbied members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to avoid any reference. "The decision was made by ASEAN because there is no consensus, so no joint declaration is signed," Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told a news conference.
The forum included defence ministers from the 10 ASEAN members and counterparts from countries such as the Australia, China, India, Japan and the United States. It came just a week after a US warship challenged territorial limits around one of China's man-made islands in the Spratly archipelago with a so-called freedom-of-navigation patrol.
The patrol prompted China's naval chief to warn his US counterpart that a minor incident could spark war if the United States did not stop "provocative acts". China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes every year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims.
China objects to what it sees as outside interference in the disputes. The United States says it takes no position on the claims but it and allies such as the Philippines have been alarmed by increasingly assertive Chinese action including island-building on disputed reefs.
China's defence minister Chang Wanquan told US Defence Secretary Ash Carter on Tuesday that China's "people and military will not stand for any infringements of China's sovereignty and relevant interests." On Wednesday, Chang said freedom of navigation should not be "hyped up" or used as an excuse for provocation.
Carter said the inability of the Southeast Asian ministers to agree on a statement reflected their concern about China's activity in the sea. "Obviously, they weren't able to reach consensus and that reflects I think the level of concern that was reflected in the conversation about activities in the South China Sea," Carter told a news conference.
He said China's reclamation and militarization in the South China Sea was a major issue in his bilateral talks this week and China's President Xi Jinping should stick to his word when he denies militarization of the sea.
"The presence of US naval vessels in the South China Sea is not new, that's been going on for decades. What's new is dredging and reclamation and militarization," Carter said. Conference host Malaysia had planned to release a statement at the end of the two-day forum but a senior US defence official said China had scuppered that. "The Chinese lobbied to keep any reference to the South China Sea out of the final joint declaration," said the official who declined to be identified.
"Understandably a number of ASEAN countries felt that was inappropriate. It reflects the divide China's reclamation and militarization ... has caused," said the official, adding that no statement was better than one that dodged mention of China's activity. China's Defence Ministry, however, blamed "certain countries" outside Southeast Asia, a pointed reference to the United States and Japan.