US President Barack Obama has voiced an ambition to see all Asia-Pacific nations “play by the same rules”, and observers said this indicated Washington’s latest renewal of its plan to meddle in regional maritime problems.

Obama made the comments while starting a two-day gathering of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ member leaders at Sunnylands in California.

Observers predicted that Obama will stay tough on the South China Sea issue and pose more challenges to China’s expanding maritime interests, trying to make his “pivot to Asia” a legacy of his eight-year presidency.

AFP said that Obama, hoping to increase pressure on China’s construction in the South China Sea, opened the meeting by declaring a US-ASEAN “shared goal of building a regional order where all nations play by the same rules”.

“Here at this summit, we can advance our shared vision of a regional order where international rules and norms, including freedom of navigation, are upheld and where disputes are resolved through peaceful, legal means,” Obama was quoted by Reuters as saying.

Teng Jianqun, a senior expert on US studies at the China Institute of International Studies, said that Washington in recent years has been working on tackling economic cooperation, which Teng described as the weak link of its ties with the ASEAN countries.

Zhong Feiteng, an expert on Asia-Pacific affairs at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, noted that tension in the South China Sea is still rising.

Zhong said the US arranged the gathering because it believes that the legitimacy of its engagement in the maritime problems will be boosted if ASEAN offers support or silent approval.

“Since there are differing positions regarding the South China Sea issue within ASEAN, Washington hopes to coordinate such positions in order to counterbalance China and offset China’s influence,” Zhong said.

Xu Liping, a senior research fellow on Southeast Asia studies at CASS, said the South China Sea issue is increasingly vulnerable to geopolitical factors, because countries such as the US and the Philippines “have taken it for bargaining chips or trading of economic interests”.

“China should be alert toward such calculations,” Xu said.

In another development, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, ahead of her China visit, said on Tuesday in Tokyo that Australia recognizes the Philippines’ right to seek international arbitration against China over the islands in the South China Sea.

In response, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the Philippines arbitration case was a contravention of international law and went against the consensus that Beijing and Manila have reached on the issue.

“China certainly will not accept this. Australia ought not to selectively avoid this reality,” he told a daily news conference in Beijing.

“The Australian side should take an objective and impartial attitude and not do anything that harms regional peace and stability,” he said.

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