South China Sea ‘likely to top agenda’ when Malaysian foreign minister visits Beijing next week

Saifuddin Abdullah’s trip comes a week after Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad called for restraint among claimants to disputed waters during visit to Hanoi

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Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea as its sovereign territory. Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:30pm, 6 Sep 2019Updated: 7:32pm, 6 Sep 2019

Malaysia’s foreign minister will visit China next week, Beijing said, with one observer suggesting the trip could provide a fillip for the negotiations on the creation of a code of conduct for the South China Sea.

Saifuddin Abdullah will be in China from Monday to Saturday at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.

The trip comes at a time of simmering tensions between China and several of its neighbours over the disputed waterway. Beijing regards almost all of the sea as its sovereign territory, but the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei hold overlapping claims.

Woody Island is just one of the many islands and reefs in the South China Sea to which Beijing lays claim. Photo: Roy Issa

In Manila, anti-China protesters took to the streets in June after a Chinese vessel struck and sank a Philippine fishing boat, and following repeated passages by Chinese warships through waters claimed by the Southeast Asian nation.

Tensions have also been rising between Hanoi and Beijing, after China sent a survey ship, supported by coastguard vessels, to the Vietnam-controlled Vanguard Reef in an apparent effort to prevent Hanoi from carrying out oil and gas operations in the area.

Beijing used similar tactics off the Malaysian coast early last month.