Declaration by G7 draws flak

Member states urged not to take sides over South China Sea disputes

BEIJING: China expressed strong dissatisfaction over a declaration issued by the Group of Seven industrialised nations that criticises China, though not mentioning it by name, for its sovereignty claims in the South China Sea.

“As the G7 host, Japan is hyping up the South China Sea issue and fanning the flame of tensions.

“China is strongly dissatisfied with what Japan and the G7 have done,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said on Friday.

She urged the G7 member states to honour their commitment to not take sides on the disputes.

In the declaration, the G7 leaders expressed concerns over the situation in the region and called for “peaceful management and settlement of disputes”.

The declaration called for maintaining “a rules-based maritime order in accordance with the principles of international law as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea”.

In the name of respect for freedom of navigation and overflight, the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States said they are committed to “peaceful settlement”.

The statement said that countries should make and clarify their claims based on international law, refraining from “unilateral actions” that could increase tensions and not using force or coercion in trying to drive their claims.

Hua said China resolutely safeguards freedom of navigation and overflight, but the navigational freedom of commercial vessels is not the same as the wilful trespassing by warships.

She said China opposes the smear campaign by some countries in the name of “navigational freedom”.

Lyu Yaodong, a researcher at the Institute of Japanese Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Japan has been internationalising the South China Sea issue.

It has pushed to include the issue in declarations of the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting and the G7 leaders’ summit.

“This does disservice to China-Japan relations and threatens regional peace and stability,” Lyu said.

Motofumi Asai, former director of the China and Mongolia division of Japan’s Foreign Ministry, said Japan has never played a positive, meaningful role in the G7. Asai criticised Japan for including the South China Sea and Korean Peninsula issues in the summit’s declaration.

The former Japanese diplomat said the G7, with its declining influence, will be overshadowed by the G20.

The G20 is a major forum for global economic and financial cooperation that brings together advanced and emerging economies, representing about 85% of global gross domestic product, 80% of world trade and two-thirds of the world’s population.