Obama focuses on South China Sea dispute ahead of Apec

[webfact]

Obama focuses on South China Sea dispute ahead of Apec

MANILA: -- US President Barack Obama has put a firm focus on the South China Sea dispute, as an economic summit of Asia Pacific nations begins in Manila.

Mr Obama said China must stop land reclamation in the disputed waters, a day after committing monetary and naval assistance to the Philippines, which has competing claims with China.

The territorial dispute is not officially on the agenda of the summit but is expected to overshadow it.

China says its dredging work is legal.

The land reclamation, which began in late 2013, has turned submerged reefs into islands. China has said it has "no intention to militarise" those islands.

Full story: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34853878


-- BBC 2015-11-18

[bangon04]

"The territorial dispute is not officially on the agenda of the summit but is expected to overshadow it."

Well since the Chinese do not give a s*** what the APEC countries think of Chinese territorial policies, it will be a very dull summit.

Obama can posture all he likes to lull the Philippines into a false sense of security, but in the end the US will do nothing to alter the Chinese mindset.

[NeverSure]

^^^ You're kidding, right? The US has treaties to defend most of the SE Asian countries and Japan. China tried to stop flights through the area so the US started flying through there. China claimed territorial waters in the SC Sea so the US sailed through them. Not all that long ago the US visited Thailand with a major carrier group as a show of solidarity.

The US has been and will continue moving assets back into Subic Bay in the Phils.

The US will keep those lanes open. As for the islands, it will not respect any territorial waters around them. It will keep them open.

Cheers.

[Publicus]

CCP Dictators in Beijing haven't yet responded to the Lassen or to the B-52 flights in and over the Spratly Islands which the CCP claims belong to them. Not even a Chinese fishing boat with a water cannon has been sent forth by Beijing to assert some kind of a defense of its wild claims.

Nor did CCP respond to the Poseidon 8-A surveillance aircraft that in April flew over the Spratlys with a CNN crew on board to film everything, to include to record the PLA Navy shouting over radio to get out and to get away, which were both ignored and laughable.

Aegis guided missile Destroyer USS Lassen DDG 82 separates from Pacific 7th Fleet Destroyer Squadron

15 in the South China Sea on October 26 for its solo Freedom of Navigation mission in Spratly Islands. Lassen

passed on the next day within the 12 nautical mile areas of Subi and Mischief Reefs claimed by China in a dispute

over island construction and claims of territorial and coastal wasters by Beijing. Lassen flew the US flag in an unusual

action by a naval force ship underway on the high seas. (US Navy photo)

Now the US Pacific Fleet Force, consisting of the 7th Fleet and the 3rd Fleet are integrating to operate jointly under the unified Pacific Command in Hawaii for the first time. In recent history, the International Date Line has separated the operations of each fleet. Since the end of WW2, the 7th Fleet has specifically operated west of the IDL to Asia and India, and the 3rd Fleet has operated to the east of the Line to the US.

The two fleets have now begun to interoperate throughout the Pacific, putting a total of 200 USNavy ships into the area of the most prominent action occurring, the South China Sea. The 7th Fleet alone has as many ships as the PLA Navy on a good day, 87. The Third Fleet has 115 ships.

The interoperation of the two fleets is the brainchild of SecDef Ashton Carter, whose Pentagon expertise includes serving with or formally advising 11 secretaries of defense.

To indicate the new cooperation between the two US fleets in the Western Pacific-Indian Ocean, both fleet commanders last month visited Japan to observe the fleet review outside Tokyo Bay of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. The two are 3rd Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Nora Tyson and 7th Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin. Each a three-star admiral.

The two fleets are under the US Pacific Fleet Command whose chief is the four-star Admiral Scott Swift in Hawaii. Admiral Harry Harris is overall commander of the US Pacific Armed Forces Command. Adm Harris was born in Japan to a US army father and a Japanese mother, raised in Tennessee and Kentucky, graduated the US Naval Academy.

During the review PM Shinto Abe boarded the aircraft carrier stationed in Japan, USS Ronald Reagan CVN 76, the first visit ever by a serving PM of Japan aboard a US Navy ship.