China has offered members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to hold regular joint military exercises in the South China Sea, Japanese media reported on Monday, citing a diplomatic source.
TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th August, 2018) China has offered members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to hold regular joint military exercises in the South China Sea, Japanese media reported on Monday, citing a diplomatic source.
According to the Kyodo news Agency, the source added that Beijing had also suggested that ASEAN members not hold joint military exercises with any other nation without first notifying the rest of the region. The outlet suggested that China, above all, wanted the ASEAN states to abstain from joint drills with the United States.
The proposals were in line with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's claims that China and the ASEAN were able to maintain peace in the disputed sea. At the China-ASEAN ministerial meeting, held in Singapore in early August, he said that the two sides had "the wisdom" to agree on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, a document set to prevent incidents between Beijing and the ASEAN countries in the region.
The South China Sea and the East China Sea are a source of tension for China and its neighbors, including Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines, as the countries continue to argue over the waters' maritime borders. China considers the Sprathy archipelago, a group of artificial islands located in the South China Sea, as its territory, despite an international tribunal ruling that these claims had no legal basis.
The South China Sea is also a thorn in the side of US-China relations, with the United States criticizing Beijing for moving weapons to the Sprathy archipelago, something which China qualifies as interference in its internal affairs.
