Generals ready to work on ways to maintain South China Sea stability
Print Edition
LEADING generals from China and the United States say they are ready to work out an effective mechanism to prevent confrontation and maintain stability in the South China Sea, speaking by phone as they sought to calm escalating tensions in the area.
Chinese Chief of the General Staff Fang Fenghui told Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford in a video conference on Thursday that China values freedom of navigation “more than any other country in the world,” according to a statement on the defense ministry’s website.
Fang told Dunford the two sides should “refrain from actions detrimental to the relations between the two countries and the two militaries,” Xinhua news agency said yesterday.
Fang said China was not to blame for tensions with the US in the South China Sea and urged the two sides “to bear the overall situation in mind and manage their differences in a constructive way,” Xinhua reported.
Fang said China wanted to expand communication and cooperation with the US to prevent the issue affecting their overall relationship.
“The common ground and prospects for cooperation between China and the US far exceed our disagreements and contradictions,” Fang was quoted as saying. China wants to take the big picture of China-US relations as the basis for approaching the South China Sea issue, Fang said.
The conversation followed a sharp verbal exchange following a US destroyer’s sail-by past China’s largest man-made island in a move to exercise what it called “freedom of navigation.”
China scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday as the guided missile destroyer sailed close to Chinese waters in the South China Sea and denounced the patrol as an illegal threat to peace.
China said such provocative actions justified it in boosting “all categories of military capacity building” on its island strongholds in the South China Sea.
Xinhua quoted Dunford as calling for restraint in the area and saying that the US was willing to work with China to establish “an effective mechanism on risk control so as to maintain stability in the South China Sea by peaceful means.”
The South China Sea was also discussed at a separate meeting between Sun Jianguo, an admiral and deputy chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army, and Vice Admiral Ray Griggs, vice chief of the Australian Defense Force.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull backed the US on Thursday over its latest South China Sea patrol. Australia has consistently supported US-led “freedom of navigation” activities in the area.
China’s defense ministry said Sun told Griggs the South China Sea was not and should not become an issue between China and Australia, and that Australia should not do anything that “harms regional peace and stability or Sino-Australia ties.”
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