US report on Chinese minister puzzling: George Yeo

A WEEK after the Asean Regional Forum (ARF), the tensions which rose between the United States and China during the meet in Hanoi are still making the news.

In the latest development, The Washington Post yesterday reported that the Chinese Foreign Minister 'apparently threatened Singapore' during a tirade aimed at his US counterpart, but Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) yesterday said it found the report puzzling.

The report comes in the wake of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's comments on the issue of territorial disputes in the South China Sea, where China, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam have long-standing conflicting territorial claims.

Mrs Clinton said resolving the disputes was in the US' 'national interests' as the issue was pivotal to regional stability - drawing a strong response from Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, who slammed the US for internationalising the issue.

In the article, The Washington Post gave more details of the exchange between Mr Yang and Mrs Clinton.

The Chinese minister, according to the paper, had left the room for an hour after hearing Mrs Clinton's remarks.

The Post reported: 'When he returned, he gave a rambling 30-minute response in which he accused the United States of plotting against China, seemed to poke fun of Vietnam's socialist credentials and apparently threatened Singapore, according to US and Asian officials in the room. 'China is a big country and other countries are small countries, and that's just a fact,' he said, staring directly at Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo, according to several participants at the meeting.'

When the MFA was asked about The Washington Post's account, however, it said that Mr Yeo had expressed puzzlement about the reference to him.

Responding to media queries yesterday, the ministry said: 'It is a fact that Singapore is small but Minister Yeo did not see Minister Yang's words or glance as threatening to Singapore.

'In fact, Minister Yang had earlier gone through the same points which he made at the ARF with Asean ministers in various meetings, including the Asean- China Post Ministerial Conference.'

At the ARF, Mr Yeo had said that as a maritime city-state, Singapore 'has an overriding interest in the freedom of navigation and the peaceful resolution of territorial disputes in the region in accordance with international law'.

Singapore, he had added, supported a joint declaration signed by Asean and China in 2002, in which they committed to resolve the disputes by peaceful means.

Mr Yeo described it as 'an important confidence building measure for promoting peaceful cooperation and stability in the South China Sea'. He added: 'Asean and China are now working on the implementation guidelines which we hope can be agreed to quickly.'

He also said: 'Singapore is not a claimant state and does not take sides in any of the territorial claims. We have an abiding interest in long-term good relations between Asean and China.'