WASHINGTON - AS tension rose over a US-China sea dispute, President Barack Obama met China's top diplomat and stressed the need for more frequent and intense communications to avoid military confrontations that could upset a relationship crucial to solving global crises.
The United States is not giving in to China's demands that it cease naval surveillance in the disputed South China Sea. But Mr Obama told Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi during an Oval Office meeting on Thursday that it was crucial to raise the level of US-Chinese military-to-military talks 'in order to avoid future incidents,' the White House said.
Sea dispute 'not helpful'
AT the US State Department, spokesman Robert Wood said the United States, 'with regard to this particular incident, was clearly operating in international waters. We were respecting international law. We will continue to do that.'
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Mr Yang also 'spoke about this issue, and both agreed that we want to make sure that these types of incidents don't recur. They're not helpful to trying to carry on the positive agenda that we have in our bilateral relationship,' Mr Wood said.
The US Navy has sent a destroyer to escort the USNS Impeccable, an unarmed sub-hunting ship that was confronted by Chinese vessels last weekend, a defense official said Thursday.
Mr Yang, in comments before the White House meeting, did not address the naval incident. He called for a 'broader and deeper' level of US-Chinese cooperation on dealing with nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea, climate change, trade and economic issues, and an assortment of hotspots around the world.
'Confrontation hurts both sides,' Mr Yang said in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank. The two countries, he said, should 'shelve differences' that cannot be immediately resolved and focus on cooperation.
The White House said Mr Obama and Mr Yang also talked about the international financial crisis, North Korea and Darfur.
The United States says its ship was operating legally in international waters, but China claims the ship was violating Chinese law by conducting surveillance too close to the Chinese coastline. The United States says five Chinese ships improperly surrounded and harassed the Impeccable off Hainan Island on Sunday.
Mr Yang also met with Mr Obama's national security adviser, James Jones, a former US Marine Corps general. Mr Jones, the White House said, also raised the confrontation.
In its first public comment on the episode, China's Defense Ministry said Thursday that the Impeccable was operating illegally inside China's exclusive economic zone when it was challenged by three Chinese government ships and two Chinese-flagged trawlers. -- AP
