Mr Obama is hoping to secure a united front against China’s territorial ambitions
Mr Obama is hoping to secure a united front against China’s territorial ambitions
President Barack Obama and Southeast Asian leaders will discuss Tuesday a common response to a key United Nations court ruling on China’s island-building when they meet in the United States.
The White House, betting that China does not want to be seen as a regional bully, has mustered an informal coalition of Pacific allies to demand that Beijing respect the rule of law. Mr Obama is hoping to secure a united front against China’s territorial ambitions as the US hosts representatives from 10 Asean countries at Sunnylands.
The secluded, sprawling California desert retreat has been beloved by US presidents since Dwight Eisenhower. The UN’s Permanent Court of Arbitration is expected to decide in April or May whether China’s claim to a vast expanse of sea inside a “nine-dash line” has legal merit.
A collective US-Asean endorsement of the court’s verdict — whatever the outcome — would heap pressure on China, which refuses to recognise the court. They “hope that, if not immediately, then over time, the Chinese will not want to be isolated and an international pariah, a country that doesn’t agree with international law,” said Ernest Bower of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
Hoping to increase pressure on China over land grabs in the South China Sea, Mr Obama opened the meeting by declaring a US-Asean “shared goal of building a regional order where all nations play by the same rules”. The White House sees this summit, and the prestigious venue, as an opportunity to champion Mr Obama’s “pivot to Asia” and Asean’s growing importance, before the president leaves the White House in January 2017.
