Manila to balance interests with China, US in row

The Philippines hopes to balance its interests between the United States and China when tackling its territorial dispute with Beijing over the South China Sea, a presidential adviser said on Friday.

Addressing a conference in Manila before a meeting between the Philippine and Chinese foreign ministers in Beijing, the adviser also suggested that smaller claimants to stretches of the sea should work together to protect their interests.

"We should know how to balance our interests between the two superpowers," Ronald Llamas, political adviser to President Benigno Aquino, told the gathering, saying Manila should negotiate through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

"Smaller states must work together as a bloc and avoid taking any side. Asean should be a fulcrum to balance the interests of the U.S. and China. The problem can be avoided by not being partisan."

Rival claims to parts of the South China Sea were expected to figure in the talks on Friday between Philippine Foreign Minister Alberto del Rosario and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi.

Yang, quoted by China's official Xinhua news agency, said del Rosario's visit would be helpful for the two countries to increase communication and coordination in international and regional affairs.

Last month, Del Rosario travelled to Washington, with which the Philippines has a security alliance. He secured a strong pledge of support from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who expressed concern about developments in the sea.

The South China Sea covers the world's second-busiest sea lanes and rich fishing grounds and straddles rich oil and natural gas deposits. China has the made largest claim over the area, and Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines also claim territorial sovereignty.

China wants one-to-one negotiations with each of the claimants rather than dealing with them within ASEAN and rejects any suggestion of U.S. involvement in the process. Beijing says it has historical sovereignty over the region, which it says supersedes claims of other countries under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Manila has accused Beijing of a number of infringements of its territory this year, including placing poles near a reef that would be a breach of an informal code of conduct agreed between and Asean and China in 2002.

Vietnam has also complained about Chinese actions in waters it claims, including the cutting of seismic cables on a ship.

In April, Manila protested to the United Nations over China's "nine-dotted line" claim over the entire South China Sea that Beijing had submitted in 2009.