US urges countries not to engage in provocative actions in South China Sea

Washington: The US has urged countries in the Asia Pacific region not to engage in "escalatory or provocative" actions in the South China Sea following a decisive ruling by an international tribunal over the disputed region.

The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in its order invalidated China's expansive sea claims surrounding disputed areas of the South China Sea.

In 2013, the Philippines challenged China's attempts to establish control over an area encompassing nearly 90 per cent of the South China Sea.

China has refused to accept or implement the order. "We certainly would encourage all parties to acknowledge the final and binding nature of this tribunal. We certainly would urge all parties not to use this as an opportunity to engage in escalatory or provocative actions," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters yesterday while travelling with US President Barack Obama to Dallas.

Earnest said the US was not a claimant to any land features in the South China Sea.

"Our interest lies in a desire for a peaceful resolution to disputes and competing claims in that region," he said. Earnest said the US wanted to preserve the freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in that region of the world.

Noting that the South China Sea is a strategically important region of the world, he said, it is also is a route for billions of dollars in commerce.

"It is important to the US economy that that flow of commerce not be significantly disrupted. That's why we have gone to great lengths to make clear that we're not a claimant, Earnest said.

"We're not taking sides in the claims, but we do strongly urge all parties with relevant claims - many of which are competing - to resolve their differences peacefully and through established processes like arbitration," he said.

State Department Spokesman John Kirby said if China failed to abide by the ruling, it would be in breach of international law.

"The world is watching now to see what these claimants will do. The world is watching to see if China is really the global power it professes itself to be and the responsible power that it professes itself to be. The world's watching this," Kirby said.

"I understand that the Chinese have made an argument that they're not going to abide by it. I've heard that loud and clear. But that doesn't change the fact that it's still a legally binding obligation. It is the world's expectation that China will abide by its obligations under this legally binding decision," he said in response to a question.

Daniel J Kritenbrink, Senior Director for Asian Affairs, National Security Council at the White House said the US believed that claimants in the South China Sea can and should use the Tribunal's decision as a new opportunity to renew efforts to address their maritime disputes peacefully.

"We encourage claimants to clarify their maritime claims in accordance with international law, as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention, and to work together to creatively manage and resolve their disputes," Kritenbrink said.

He said the US viewed the South China Sea in the context of the global rules-based international order America seeks to uphold, both in the Asia-Pacific region and worldwide.

"Our strategy is guided by sustaining the principles at the heart of the rules-based international order: namely, customary international law, unimpeded lawful commerce, freedom of navigation and overflight for civilian and military assets, and peaceful resolution of disputes," he said.

Kritenbrink said the US was not prepared to accept the emergence of a different set of rules in the South China Sea relative to the rest of the world.

"We believe such a development would lead to breakdowns in the rules-based international order. Over time, such a trend could unravel the international legal order and therefore the peace and stability that we and the rest of the international community have enjoyed over the past 70-plus years," Kritenbrink asserted.

"That is the logic underpinning why the US takes such a strong position on upholding the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea and airspace guaranteed to all countries, and in ensuring that these same rights and freedoms apply in the South China Sea the same as they do in every other part of the world" he said.

"We see these efforts as linked to our broader national security interest in preserving and strengthening order globally," Kritenbrink said.

During a conference call with reporters, a State Department official said the decision announced by the Law of the Sea Tribunal in The Hague was a "very sweeping and decisive ruling."

"Four key elements from our point of view are, first, the invalidation of the nine-dash line claim; secondly, the determination that the features in the Spratly Islands and the

Scarborough Reef are entitled to no more than 12 nautical miles by way of maritime space; that the construction of artificial islands by China and the conduct of Chinese fishing fleets violated the rights of the Philippines; and that the large-scale reclamation and constructing these military outposts in the Spratlys damage the environment," the official said.

The official said the US strongly believed that once the dust settles and the rhetoric subsides, this decision opens the door to some very practical and potentially productive discussions among the various claimants in the South China Sea, in part because the ruling significantly narrows the geographic scope of the areas in question.

"So we are working diplomatically with each of the parties to try to encourage them to use this decision as the basis for discussions and potentially the basis for agreement on what constitutes acceptable behaviour in the disputed areas and to explore the potential down the road for things like joint development," the official said on condition of anonymity.