U.S. Attributes Rise of China and India to Peace in Asia-Pacific

WASHINGTON: The U.S. today attributed Chinas rise to the peace in the Asia Pacific region it ensured for the past seven decades and said India is now benefiting from it.

"Look at what the U.S. has brought to the Asia-Pacific region over last 70 years, the most rapidly growing region economically in the world," U.S. Defence Secretary Ashton Carter told a Washington audience.

"Its been the peace and stability there that we underwrote thats allowed first Japan to rise, then South Korea, then Taiwan, then Southeast Asia, now China and India. Thats what weve stood for and theyve benefited from that," he asserted.

"So to disrupt the security environment where half of humanity lives and half of humanitys economic behavior is not a good idea on their part, but certainly for our part, we intend to continue our strong role there," he said, responding to a question on the recent assertive behaviour of China in South China Sea.

The U.S., he argued, is going to keep doing what it has always done for 70 years.

"Were going to fly and sail and operate where international law permits, period. And we demonstrate that and that won’t stop," he said.

The South China Sea is also a major shipping lane. Over half of the worlds commercial shipping passes through the Indo-Pacific waterways.

China claims almost the whole of the South China Sea, resulting in overlapping claims with several other Asian nations like Vietnam and the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.

They accuse China of illegally reclaiming land in contested areas to create artificial islands with facilities that could potentially be for military use.

The U.S. has criticised Beijing for building artificial islands in the disputed sea, and has flown a B-52 bomber and sailed a guided-missile destroyer near some of the constructions China has made in recent months.

Carter said the U.S. is also making investments in its defense budget that are specifically oriented towards the checking the development of the Chinese military.

Also the recent Chinese behavior has made other nations in the region concerned.

"All around the region, people are reacting. The Chinese are, with this kind of stuff, going to get people to react and compensate. But more importantly, its self-isolating behavior," he said.

"I dont know when theyll realise that, whether they will realise that, but it’s not the American approach to have a cold war there, to carve up the region, to divide. We’re not trying to stop the Chinese from doing what they’re doing," Carter said.
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