Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop said the U.S. and Australia aren’t taking a position on the competing territorial claims in the South China Sea, but are simply focused on stability in the region.
“What we are concerned about is maintaining the relative peace and stability in the South China Sea. And from Australia’s perspective we have a direct national interest in peace and stability in the South China Sea because about two thirds of our trade goes through those waters and we reach the rest of the world by flying through that airspace. So the fundamental principles of freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight are not just a rhetorical proposition. It really matters to Australia’s national interest,” Bishop said while addressing the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday (October 14).
Bishop’s comments come one day after U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the United States military would sail and fly wherever international law allowed, including the disputed South China Sea. Carter spoke after a two-day meeting between U.S. and Australian foreign and defense ministers at which the long-time allies agreed to expand defense cooperation and expressed “strong concerns” over Beijing’s building on disputed islands.
China claims most of the South China Sea and last week its foreign ministry warned that Beijing would not stand for violations of its territorial waters in the name of freedom of navigation. (Reuters)