At talks in Vientiane, Laos, American President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed backing for Pacific Rim nations threatened by Chinese expansion and militarization in disputed waters.
At the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit being held between Sept. 6 and 8, Obama called the results of an international arbitration that denied Beijing’s “historic claims” to the South China Sea, “binding,” and promised more diplomatic and economic cooperation in the region, Voice of America (VOA) reported on Sept. 8.
The president said that the ruling “helped to clarify maritime rights in the region,” and that the United States would “continue to work to ensure that disputes are resolved peacefully including in the South China Sea.”
Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei reported that Abe expressed deep concern about China’s “continued attempts to unilaterally change the status quo in the South and East China seas over the past few months” and warned Southeast Asian leaders against taking too conciliatory a stance towards Beijing.
The economies of ASEAN states are deeply intertwined with mainland China, giving Beijing some political leverage over them.
While recent tensions have been centered on the South China Sea disputes, where six different countries have mutually overlapping claims, Japan has its own disagreements with China over the Senkaku islets in the East China Sea.
Abe also noted that the South China Sea was a “vitally important sea lane for Japan.”
