The United States takes no position on any claim made by any party to any disputed area. What we want to see is a resolution process that will be aided by the code of conduct that ASEAN is working toward, based on the Declaration of Conduct, and that the principles of international law will govern so that there can be peaceful resolution of all the claims. In order to achieve that, every claimant must make their claim publicly and specifically known so that we know where there is any dispute.
All of us have a stake in ensuring that these disputes don't get out of control, and in fact the numbers have been increasing of intimidation actions, of ramming, of cutting of cables, the kind of things that will raise the cost of doing business for everyone who travels through the South China Sea, which as I said earlier is half of all global commerce.
