July 24 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that escalating tensions in the South China Sea risk disrupting trade and called on Asian countries to use international legal principles to back territorial claims.
"The United States is concerned that recent incidents in the South China Sea threaten the peace and stability on which the remarkable progress of the Asia-Pacific region has been built," Clinton told a regional security forum yesterday in Bali, Indonesia. "These incidents endanger the safety of life at sea, escalate tensions, undermine freedom of navigation and pose risks to lawful, unimpeded commerce."
Clinton commended China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations for agreeing to guidelines for joint activities in the waters last week and urged them to accelerate a legally binding code of conduct. She called on countries to "exercise self-restraint" and avoid occupying uninhabited islands in the disputed waters.
The U.S.'s alliance with the Philippines and naval power in the Asia-Pacific has led to tensions with China, which claims most of the South China Sea as its own. The Philippines and Vietnam have pushed ahead with oil and gas exploration over objections from China, which has used patrol boats to disrupt hydrocarbon surveys in disputed waters.
'Clarify Claims'
Clinton called on the countries "to clarify their claims in the South China Sea in terms consistent with customary international law, including as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention," Clinton said, according to prepared remarks that were given to reporters. "Consistent with international law, claims to maritime space in the South China Sea should be derived solely from legitimate claims to land features."
Philippines Foreign Secretary Albert F. del Rosario told that forum that China's claims are "baseless." Those remarks are "totally groundless" and will complicate the situation, Xinhua cited Liu Weimin, a spokesman for China's delegation at the talks, as saying.
Clinton is asking states to lay out their claims very clearly and unambiguously and to explain the legal basis for them, said a State Department official present for meetings on the South China Sea. That will force countries to look carefully at their approaches, especially given that almost all claims to the waters are exaggerated, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The U.S. has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
'Nine-Dash Map'
China last week rejected an attempt by the Philippines to have the UN's International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea decide the territorial dispute. The Philippines plans to ask another UN arbitration panel to demarcate disputed areas of the sea "to prove our claim," Del Rosario said on July 20.
Along with the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia have released statements to the UN saying China's "nine-dash map" of the waters has no basis in international law.
China says its claims "are supported by abundant historical and legal evidence," according to an April submission to the UN. It said the Philippines "started to invade and occupy" its islands in the 1970s.
Chinese ships cut survey cables of Vietnam Oil & Gas Group vessels twice in the past few months and in March chased away a boat working for U.K.-based Forum Energy Plc that was surveying the area. A Chinese frigate fired warning shots at Philippine trawlers on Feb. 25.
China's actions in the waters provoked protests in Hanoi over the past month and prompted a group of Philippine lawmakers to travel last week to the disputed Spratly Islands, which are also claimed by Malaysia, Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam and China. All those countries except Brunei have troops stationed in the area.
"It's impossible to solve it here and now," Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told reporters after the meetings concluded yesterday. "It takes time. It's a marathon; it's not a sprint."
--With assistance from Karl Lester M. Yap in Bali. Editors: Ben Richardson, Patrick G. Henry
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