Kerry to urge restraint during East Asian tour
Top US diplomat will focus on region's growing territorial disputes ahead of Obama visit in April
America's top diplomat will press China and South Korea not to let regional disputes escalate into armed conflict during an Asian tour that started yesterday.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, who will pave the way for a visit to the region by President Barack Obama in April, arrived in Seoul on his way to Beijing where he will tell officials that the US is committed to a positive relationship with China, the State Department said.
"It is unwise in the extreme for China to take actions that are disruptive of stability in the region," a senior State Department official told reporters travelling with Kerry on the plane to Seoul.
The six-day trip, which also includes Indonesia and Abu Dhabi, comes amid heightened tensions in the Asia-Pacific region, led by China and Japan's territorial dispute in the East China Sea.
Kerry's latest tour of Asia, his fifth in the past year, highlights increasing US concerns about being dragged into conflicts between Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo, plus worries over North Korea's nuclear programme.
Kerry is not visiting Japan, but he met Japanese foreign minister Fumio Kishida last Friday in Washington, where the two pledged to collaborate further on security and oppose China's declaration of an air defence identification zone. Kerry is expected to relay US opposition to that move while in Beijing .
"The US will press China to take a more cautious approach to maintain stability in the East China Sea," said Jia Qingguo, an international relations professor at Peking University. "The US is obviously very worried that it will be involved if there is armed conflict between China and Japan."
