President Barack Obama will deliver a tough message to China during a
summit with Southeast Asian countries next week that disputes in the
South China Sea must be resolved peacefully and not with a big nation
"bullying" smaller neighbors, the White House said on Tuesday.
Obama
will also address North Korea's "provocations," a nuclear test last
month and a rocket launch over the weekend, when he hosts the leaders of
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in California on
Monday and Tuesday, aides said.
Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy
national security adviser, said the president will reiterate that
territorial disputes over the area, where China and several Southeast
Asian states have conflicting and overlapping claims, must be handled
through negotiations and consistent with international norms.
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