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Trump makes pitch to mediate sea row

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US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he was prepared to mediate between claimants to the South China Sea, a move welcomed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which must decide as one whether to accept him as mediator.
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he was prepared to mediate between claimants to the South China Sea, a move welcomed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which must decide as one whether to accept him as mediator.
His Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping, played down concerns over Beijing’s military buildup and the prospects of war in the contested waters, in a frank discussion with President Rodrigo Duterte in Da Nang, Vietnam, where all three of them attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Meeting.
“We welcome that offer. Let’s see how everyone responds. In cases like this, the response must come from everyone,” Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano told reporters on Sunday on the sidelines of meetings held ahead of the 31st Asean Summit in Manila.
Trump and Xi Jinping spoke separately about the territorial rifts ahead of the Asean Summit with the United States, China and other global players, where the disputes are expected to get the spotlight, along with North Korea’s nuclear threat and terrorism.
Trump spoke in Vietnam, which has become the most vocal opponent of China’s claims and its construction and militarization of artificial islands in the sea.
China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, including portions of the waterway claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan.
To bolster its claims, it has reclaimed land on seven reefs in the South China Sea, transforming the reefs into artificial islands, and topped these with runways and installations that can be used to project its military might across the region.
“I’m a very good mediator and arbitrator,” Trump said in comments at a meeting in Hanoi with Vietnam’s president, Tran Dai Quang, before flying to Manila for the Asean Summit.
But Trump’s offer faces major obstacles. For one, China has steadfastly opposed what it calls US meddling in the disputes and has balked at the US Navy’s incursions into what Beijing considers its territorial waters in the South China Sea.
Washington is not among the claimants to the waterway, among the busiest in the world, but it has declared it has a national interest in ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight and the peaceful resolution of the disputes.
Allies back an active American military presence in the disputed waters to serve as a counterweight to China’s increasingly assertive actions, including the construction of artificial islands equipped with military installations.

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