DHAKA: US state secretary John Kerry is in Brunei for meetings with top officials from China and its smaller Southeast Asian neighbours, in which he will urge all countries to cool tensions over territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

Kerry will make the case in Wednesday discussions with China’s prime minister and the leaders of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

US officials said Kerry would call on the Chinese to accept a binding code of conduct to govern maritime behaviour until disputes with the Asean states are resolved.

Kerry has added an ‘informal meeting’ with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov to his schedule on Wednesday, according to a senior US official.

They are expected to discuss Syria and Iran. This will be their second meeting in three days; they met on Monday at a different Asia-Pacific summit in Indonesia.

Kerry is filling in at the summits for US president Barack Obama, who had to cancel his participation due to the government shutdown in Washington.

BDST: 1556 HRS, OCT 09, 2013
RoR/SRS