US says Southeast Asian summit ‘not anti-China’

WASHINGTON DC, USA – A summit with Southeast Asian leaders that US President Barack Obama is hosting later this month is “not anti-China,” a US State Department official said Tuesday, February 2.

The meeting will bring leaders from the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the Californian resort of Sunnylands on February 15-16.

“This summit is not about China. It’s about the US and ASEAN,” US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Daniel Russel said in an interview with the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse news agencies.

“This is not about China, this is not anti-China.”

The US administration has focused on bolstering ASEAN as a counterpoint to Chinese regional power.

“This is the culmination of a seven-plus-year investment the United States has made first and foremost in the Asia pacific region, but also in ASEAN in particular,” Russel said.

“I think it demonstrates that the rebalance has reached cruising altitude,” he added, referring to the Obama administration’s focus on its “pivot” toward Asia since 2009.

Several ASEAN states are embroiled in an increasingly bitter spat with China over disputed territory in the South China Sea.

The US says it takes no position on ownership of the various reefs and islets under dispute, but insists freedom of navigation in the vital shipping lane must be maintained.

“This set of challenges in Southeast Asia, particularly the disputes over land features and maritime entitlement in South China Sea isn’t a zero-sum game, this is not a proxy war between China and the United States,” Russel said.

“This is a direct challenge to the question of whether the countries in the region and the claimants in the South China Sea, and particularly China… would be guided by the universal principles and the rule of law.”

He insisted that Asia was “not certainly a battleground for big powers’ competition.” – Rappler.com