Asean needs US in resolving Spratly dispute: US envoy

Manila: Member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and Taiwan should seek help from the United States in resolving claims in the Spratly Archipelago off South China Sea, a US diplomat said, but Asean and China have already firmed up efforts to stop making Spratly a flash-point in the region, countered a senior Filipino official,

"There are stake holders well beyond the region. The US is a stake holder and so too are so many countries [in making the South China Sea a free sea lane]," Ambassador David Carden, visiting US Permanent Ambassador to the Asean told the Tribune, a local paper.

"What we are focused on is the resolution of any claims that people have, I think we move forward on… [Asean's] declaration on the code of conduct in the region and hopefully its going to be forthcoming and that will begin to provide opportunities to speak on these issues," Carden said, adding that hostilities due to US assistance in resolving the issue "are far away from such situation and will never will arise".

China, Taiwan and Vietnam (an Asean member country) claim the whole of South China Sea, while the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei [all Asean members] claim some parts of oil and mineral-rich Spratly Archipelago.

In 2002, Asean and China signed a non-binding Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC). It occurred after the Philippines had discovered in 1995 that China had built structures on Mischief Reef. It is nearer the Philippines than the Kalayaan Island Group claimed by the Philippines in the Spratly Archipelago.

Asean and China, too

However, Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Erlinda Basilio also told Tribune that Asean and China have started working on guidelines for DOC's implementation, adding that both parties are also crafting a more legally-binding and formal code of conduct on Spratly.

"That is our aspiration. All we want is peace and stability in that part of the region in the South China Sea," Basilio said, but did not give details.

Since 2002, China has called for bilateral and not multilateral agreement with claimants of the Spratly Archipelago. It has also opposed the involvement of other countries in resolving the issue.

In principle, China was also against an Asean-wide discussion on the issue.

But in 2010, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at the Asean leaderssummit in Hanoi that Asean must have a "mechanism in place to resolve its [Spratly] disputes and to bring in stake holders to discuss the issue, such as the US".

She articulated the fear of the US, that the deterioration of the Spratly issue into a flash-point could destroy the South China Sea as a free sea lane.

This could affect US-Asia trade, regional observers said.

Only China and Taiwan are two non Asean countries that are claiming the South China Sea.

Asean is composed of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Both China and the US are Asean's trading partners.