US defence chief to visit carrier as South China Sea tension simmers

Kuala Lumpur: US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter will visit an American aircraft carrier off Malaysia on Thursday, a senior Defence Department official said, as US- Chinese tensions over the South China Sea escalate.

The official would not specify where the USS Theodore Roosevelt would be sailing at the time, but said the enormous nuclear-powered supercarrier is conducting a "routine transit" of the South China Sea.

Carter's visit could add to worsening discord between Washington and Beijing over Chinese claims to virtually the entire South China Sea and its attempts to reinforce those claims by turning reefs and tiny islets into full-fledged islands through land reclamation.

Last week, Washington pressed its right to freedom of navigation in the area by sending the guided missile destroyer USS Lassen to within 12 nautical miles of at least one of the artificial islets in the Spratlys chain, angering China.

Earlier today, Carter attended an Asia-Pacific defence ministers meeting in Malaysia that ended on a sour note as the United States and China butted heads over whether a final joint statement should mention the South China Sea.

"We could not reach a consensus on a joint declaration," Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters.

He declined to lay blame for the breakdown and said "discussions were not heated".

But both China and the United States pointed the finger at each other.

The US side said several Southeast Asian defence ministers opposed China's demand that the South China Sea be left out of any statement.

A US official said the United States felt that "no statement is better than one that avoids the important issue of China's reclamation and militarisation in the South China Sea".

Beijing insists it has sovereignty over nearly all of the strategic waterway, through which about one-third of the world's traded oil passes and whose seabed contains coveted energy and mineral deposits.

China's territorial claims are widely disputed, however.

Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan all also have various claims, some overlapping, though none are as extensive as Beijing's.

The sea has long been viewed as a potential flashpoint, and the Chinese island-building push has sent fears of conflict to new heights.