POTUS offers to mediate in South China Sea feud
Trump, Duterte to hold formal talks today
MANILA: US President Donald Trump on Sunday offered to mediate in the South China Sea disputes, while his Chinese counterpart played down concerns over Beijing’s military buildup and the prospects of war in the contested waters.
Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke separately about the territorial rifts ahead of an annual summit of Southeast Asian nations that also includes the US, China and other global players.
“I’m a very good mediator and arbitrator,” Trump said at a news conference with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, before flying to Manila for the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The Philippines, the head of ASEAN’s rotational chairmanship, said member states of the 10-nation ASEAN bloc have to consult each other but thanked Trump for the offer.
“He is the master of the art of the deal but, of course, the claimant countries have to answer as a group or individually... mediation involves all the claimants and non-claimants,” Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano told reporters.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Xi, during a meeting in Danang, Vietnam, where they attended the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum this past week, assured him of China’s peaceful intentions in the strategic waterway, where Beijing, the Philippines, Vietnam and three other governments have overlapping claims.
When he raised concerns over China’s increasing military capability in the South China Sea, Duterte said Xi replied, “No, it’s nothing.”
“He acknowledged that war cannot be promoted by anybody, (that) it would only mean destruction for all of us,” Duterte told reporters after flying back to Manila. “He knows that if he goes to war, everything will blow up.”
The Chinese leader, however, would not back down on Beijing’s territorial claim, Duterte said, and justified his decision not to immediately demand Chinese compliance with a ruling by a UN-linked tribunal that invalidated China’s sweeping claims in the South China Sea on historical grounds.
The ASEAN summit opens Monday under extra-tight security at a theater and convention complex by Manila Bay. Duterte will host a gala dinner for nearly 20 world leaders, including Trump, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Riot police used shields and water hoses Sunday to push back hundreds of left-wing activists who tried to hold a protest at the US Embassy and carried placards that read “Ban Trump.” There were no immediate reports of injuries in the brief scuffle and the protesters left after burning a mock US flag.
Trump and Duterte will hold more formal talks on Monday.