China plays down severity of South China Sea issues

Issues revolving around South China Sea may have taken four ASEAN countries — Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Vietnam — into a standoff with Asian giant China.

The South China Sea issues have also caused tension between China and a world power, the US, as navy vessels from both sides attacked each other last year in the territory, putting Southeast Asian security at risk.

The two powers even traded barbs during an Asian Regional Forum in Hanoi last year. The forum is created to openly talk about security issues in the Asian region.

But Indonesian Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro and Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Liang Guang Lie exchanged laughs and smiles after their approximate two-hour-long bilateral meeting here on Thursday at the ASEAN defense ministers' meeting at the Defense Ministry.

Liang, who refused an interview, rushed to his car after the meeting.

Purnomo said the meeting went "fine", that there was no problems discussing South China Sea issues with his Chinese counterpart and there was no negative response from China to an ASEAN defense ministers' joint statement earlier on in the day on South China Sea.

In the joint statement, the ASEAN defense ministers said they wanted South China Sea to be stable and peaceful, without detailing whether a bilateral or multilateral approach was best. "If he were upset with the joint statement, he would have exited [the meeting room] in anger," Purnomo told reporters after the bilateral meeting.

"But the fact is he was not angry. He was smiling, even chuckling. He may not have read [the statement] anyway. But from what I know there was no problem."

He made the same response when asked on how the Chinese minister reacted to his earlier statement saying that as current chair
of ASEAN, Indonesia wanted South China Sea disputes to be solved multilaterally.

"[China] had no problem [with my earlier statement]. What are the issues that developed outside after all?" Purnomo said.

After being told that China wants to settle territorial disputes in the South China Sea bilaterally and discreetly with other claimants, he said "[China] indeed has a big voice".

Indonesian Defense Ministry secretary-general Eris Herryanto said both China and Indonesia shared the same interest in wanting to see a secure and peaceful region in South China Sea for vessels to navigate without disruption.

China, the four ASEAN countries and Taiwan had laid overlapping claims to the Spratly and Paracel Islands in South China Sea.

It is estimated that oil and natural gas reserves in the Spratly region amount to 17.7 billion tons, making it the world's fourth-largest reserve bed.

China and ASEAN are still negotiating the guidelines for the implementation of the declaration of conduct [DOC] on South China Sea before moving further to upgrade the DOC to a code of conduct, which is more legally binding.