G7 foreign ministers oppose sea row provocation

HIROSHIMA – Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) advanced economies said they strongly oppose provocation in the East and South China Seas, where China is locked in territorial disputes with nations including the Philippines, Vietnam and Japan.

“We express our strong opposition to any intimidating coercive or provocative unilateral actions that could alter the status quo and increase tensions,” the foreign ministers said in a statement yesterday following a meeting in this Japanese city.

In an apparent reference to China’s territorial spat with the Philippines, the group also called on countries to observe international maritime laws and implement any binding judgments delivered by courts and tribunals.

Manila has asked the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague to decide on its dispute with Beijing. A ruling is expected by June.

China is building islands on reefs in the South China Sea to bolster its claims. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims on the waters that are believed to have huge deposits of oil and gas and through which about $ 5 trillion in trade is shipped every year.

The United States has said it is keen to raise the issue of China’s territorial ambitions in the South China Sea at a G-7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Hiroshima, a move that would likely draw an angry response from Beijing.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters in Washington last Friday the US should discuss security issues any time it meets with key partners in Asia. “What we want to see happen in the South China Sea is important. It’s important to the region, it’s important to the stability of the region, so I would suggest that those topics should be on the table.”

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last Saturday said the G- 7 meeting that began yesterday should not “hype” the South China Sea issue. He made the comments at a meeting with British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond in Beijing, according to a statement on the ministry’s website last Saturday.

While host nation Japan decides on the agenda for the two-day meeting, it is likely to agree to any request from the US to discuss the South China Sea, as it has in recent months stepped up its criticism of China’s activities in the water – a key maritime artery for trade and energy shipments.

While none of the six states that have overlapping claims in the resource-rich sea is present in Hiroshima, any implied criticism would be seen in Beijing as a political move to put pressure on China.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and US Secretary of State John Kerry are scheduled to speak after the meeting closes this afternoon.

China has shown increasing assertiveness in its claims, constructing artificial islands and placing military facilities on them. The US has challenged its “excessive” claims, conducting freedom of navigation operations close to these islands.

Kerry, who arrived in Hiroshima yesterday morning, became the first US Secretary of State to visit the atomicbombed city. His landmark trip is seen as possibly paving the way for President Barack Obama to become the first serving US president to visit the city next month, when he comes to Japan for the G- 7 summit, which will take place in another part of Japan.

The Hiroshima meeting, part of the run-up to the summit, also includes top diplomats from nuclear-armed Britain and France, and Canada, Germany, Italy, host Japan and the European Union. The ministers discussed issues including the Middle East, the refugee crisis, the conflict in Ukraine and global terrorism.

Ministers have so far said little about the content of the meetings, though Kerry tweeted that they had a “big foreign policy agenda to cover” – mentioning topics such as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria militant group as well as “Asia regional issues and global threats.”

But it is the location of the talks – one of two cities where the US dropped an atomic bomb in 1945, ending World War II – that has captured the imagination of the Japanese public. Many hope it will promote greater understanding of Japan’s staunch anti-nuclear stance as the only country to suffer an atomic attack.

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