Singapore Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam assured reporters in Washington DC on May 12 that “We (the Association of South East Asian Nations - ASEAN) do not want tension. We want a code of conduct to be progressed with”.
The Straits Times on May 13 also quoted US Secretary of State John Kerry speaking at the joint press briefing, held on the sidelines of the Singapore FM’s May 12-16 visit to the US as saying that “All nations that are engaged in navigation and traffic within the South China Sea (called the East Sea by Vietnam), the East China Sea are deeply concerned about the aggressive act (by China)”.
He said, “We want to see a code of conduct created; we want to see this resolved peacefully through the Law of the Sea, through arbitration, through any other means, but not direct confrontation and aggressive action.”
According to Singapore newspapers, the foreign ministers of Singapore and the United States have called for swifter progress in crafting the code of conduct in the East Sea, and for territorial disputes between China and several ASEAN countries to be resolved peacefully.
The Singapore Foreign Ministry said in its statement on May 13 that the two officials reiterated the importance of working towards an expeditious conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.
Minister Shanmugam emphasised the importance of an early conclusion of the TPP and how it will create more jobs in the US. As of now, 560,000 jobs in the US are sustained by exports to ASEAN and TPP will greatly increase this number.
Both sides also welcomed efforts to strengthen ASEAN-US ties, including through the US-ASEAN Energy cooperation, of which Singapore is the country coordinator and the US-Asia-Pacific Comprehensive Energy Partnership for a Shared Future (USACEP), of which both are in the Steering Committee.
During the meeting, the two ministers reaffirmed the close and longstanding bilateral relations between Singapore and the US that span the economic, political, military, and socio-cultural fronts. They reiterated both countries’ commitment to further strengthen cooperation both bilaterally and regionally.
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