China's Not Happy About the US-India Statement on the South China Sea

[GBCW 397]

By Ankit Panda
October 10, 2014

On Wednesday, China condemned the recent United States-India joint statement which called for countries to respect the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a media brief that China’s “position is that the dispute in the South China Sea should be resolved by countries directly concerned through negotiations and consultations. Any third party should not be involved in this.”

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Following Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to the United States, which ended last week, the two sides released a joint statement as is customary. The statement made a series of declarations on U.S.-India cooperation in the areas of defense and security in the Asia-Pacific and elsewhere. The statement marked the first time that the United States and India jointly made a declaration on the South China Sea, specifically in calling for all countries in the region to respect a certain set of principles ... As both India and the United States remain outside the immediate South China Sea region, China sees their interference as unwarranted and illegitimate.

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In a recent trip to Vietnam, Indian President Pranab Mukherjee concluded a joint statement with his Vietnamese counterpart which contained remarkably similar language. On the surface, the common language between the Vietnamese and U.S. joint declarations suggest that the clause may have been something proposed by the Indian side.

http://thediplomat.com/2014/10/chinas-not-happy-about-the-us-india-statement-on-the-south-china-sea/