Asia Spats a Growing Challenge to Security, Gates Says

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said recent territorial disputes in Asian seas are an increasing threat to the region’s stability and encouraged a maritime code of conduct that China has so far resisted.

“Disagreements over territorial claims and the appropriate use of the maritime domain appear to be a growing challenge to regional stability and prosperity,” Gates told a meeting of Asia Pacific defense ministers today in Hanoi, according to a copy of his speech. “Competing claims should be settled peacefully, without force or coercion.”