WASHINGTON — The United States and China agreed Wed nesday on the need to reduce tensions and avoid a repeat of a confrontation between American and Chinese vessels in the South China Sea, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said.
“We both agreed that we should work to ensure that such incidents do not happen again,” Clinton told reporters after meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi at the State Department.
The two countries remained at odds over the exact circumstances.
“We have each stated our positions, but the important point of agreement coming out of my discussions with Minister Yang is that we must work hard in the future to avoid such incidents and to avoid this particular incident having consequences that are unforeseen,” she said.
Before their private meeting, neither Clinton nor Yang mentioned the dispute, even as China’s Foreign Ministry in Beijing responded for a second consecutive day to U.S. complaints that Chinese vessels harassed a U.S. Navy surveillance ship in international waters on Sunday.
Yang plans to meet today with President Barack Obama and his national-security adviser, James Jones. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said he expects the dispute will be discussed but will not dominate the conversation.
Even if diplomatic efforts by Clinton and Yang are successful in toning down the dispute, however, it may be only a temporary lull in a larger military disagreement.
Beijing has long complained about U.S. surveillance operations around China’s borders. Without better communications between the two militaries as they operate in the South China Sea, the possibility for conflict will remain.
