China
says not aware of plan to discuss South China Sea at APEC
Send a link to a friend
[November 10, 2015]
BEIJING (Reuters) - China is not
aware of any plan to discuss the disputed South China Sea at an Asia
Pacific leaders' summit next week in Manila, a senior Chinese diplomat
said on Tuesday, amid tensions between China and the Philippines over
the waters.
|
For its part, the Philippines said it had no plan to raise the
issue at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit from
Nov. 17 to 19.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is to attend the meeting of APEC, which
includes the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and
Canada and together accounts for 57 percent of global production and
46.5 percent of world trade.
"Everyone knows that APEC is primarily about discussing trade and
financial cooperation in the Asia Pacific," Chinese Vice Foreign
Minister Li Baodong told reporters in answer to a question.
"As far as I know, at this year's summit, there are no plans to
discuss the South China Sea."
China has overlapping claims with Vietnam, the Philippines,
Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei in the South China Sea, through which $5
trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Nov/10/images/ads/current/castlemanor_lda_032414.png) A summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations last week,
attended by both the United States and China, failed to produce a
final statement because the delegations could not agree on whether
to mention the South China Sea dispute.
China has been particularly angered by a case lodged by the
Philippines with an arbitration court in the Netherlands over the
South China Sea. China says it will neither recognize nor
participate in the case.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario met Chinese Foreign
Minister Wang Yi in Manila for the first high-level talks between
the two neighbors since 2011.
[to top of second column] |
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Nov/10/images/ads/current/grieme_lda_farm_2015.png)
"They expressed hope the contentious issues will not be raised (at
APEC) and we said we will endeavor on our side not to raise
contentious maritime issues," Charles Jose, Manila's foreign
ministry spokesman, told a news conference.
He said Manila would not raise the South China Sea issue because of
the arbitration case in The Hague and because APEC was "not the
proper forum".
Separately, China's Defence Ministry said that naval chief Wu
Shengli had left for a visit to Malaysia and Indonesia. It gave no
other details.
Malaysia, another claimant in the South China Sea, has taken an
increasingly vocal position on the dispute of late.
(Reporting by Megha Rajagopalan; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing
by Nick Macfie)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Nov/10/images/ads/current/mks_lda_110915.png) |