EAS ministers meet, focus on N. Korea, S. China Sea

NUSA DUA, Indonesia, July 22 Kyodo -
Foreign ministers of the East Asia Summit member countries held talks Friday in Bali, as regional powers moved to ease tensions in inter-Korean relations and disputes between China and Southeast Asian nations over territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The meeting came as the chief nuclear envoys of South and North Korea met in an apparent effort to resume the six-party talks on North's nuclear ambitions, and a day after China and Southeast Asian countries endorsed just concluded guidelines to govern behavior in disputed areas of the South China Sea.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov officially participated for the first time in an EAS foreign ministerial session, before the leaders of the two countries join 16 other EAS member states at an EAS summit in Indonesia in November.
On Friday, Clinton hailed the agreement struck between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on the guidelines to implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, which policymakers and analysts hope will help build confidence and reduce tension among countries with rival claims to island chains in the area.
''She stated that we (are) strongly supportive of the first steps that have been taken between China and ASEAN,'' Kurt Campbell, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said in explaining comments made by Clinton during a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on this Indonesian resort island.
''And we think it's a good start and we're looking forward to support(ing) that process going forward,'' Campbell told journalists.
With the agreement, the 10-member ASEAN bloc of nations is poised to prod China to start talks to establish a legally binding code of conduct to ensure the peaceful resolution of disputes in the South China Sea. China has been reluctant to enter into a binding agreement.
The South China Sea, which contains some of the world's busiest shipping lanes, has island chains located above what are believed to be rich deposits of oil and gas and which are claimed in whole by China, Taiwan and Vietnam and in part by Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines.
On North Korea, observers hope that Friday's talks in Bali between Wi Sung Lac, South Korea's chief envoy to the six-party talks, and North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho will lead to contacts between the United States and North Korea as part of the process to get stalled denuclearization negotiations restarted.
The Wi-Ri meeting marked the first high-level dialogue since tensions spiked on the Korean Peninsula last year with two deadly confrontations between the two Koreas and Pyongyang's revelation of a uranium enrichment program.
Six-way nuclear talks involving the two Koreas, China, the United States, Japan and Russia have been stalled since December 2008.
Along with the South China Sea and North Korea, the EAS foreign ministers were also believed to have discussed political developments in Myanmar and measures to boost cooperation in disaster management in the wake of the deadly earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan in March, which led to a series of explosions at a nuclear power plant and the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
Earlier Friday, Clinton said Myanmar will lose the trust of the international community unless it releases its political prisoners and opens dialogue with opposition forces, the Associated Press reported.
The EAS currently comprises the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus Japan, China, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.