‘I’m a very good arbitrator’: Donald Trump offers to mediate on South China Sea disputes

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he was prepared to mediate between claimants to the South China Sea, which include China and Vietnam.

“If I can help mediate or arbitrate, please let me know,” Trump said in comments at the start of a meeting with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang in Hanoi.

Trump acknowledged that China’s position on the South China Sea, nearly all of which is claimed by Beijing, was a problem. “I’m a very good mediator and arbitrator,” he said.

Asked later about Trump’s offer, Quang demurred.

“I have shared my thoughts with President Donald Trump on the recent developments in this area,” he said, adding that Vietnam wanted to settle disputes through “peaceful negotiations” in accordance with international law.

China claims more than 80 per cent of the South China Sea, where it has built features on seven rocks and reefs and installed military facilities.

Vietnam has reclaimed land around reefs and islets, but on nowhere near the same scale as China. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan also have claims in the sea.

In August, the foreign ministers of Southeast Asia and China adopted a negotiating framework for a code of conduct in the disputed waterway, a move they hailed as progress but which critics said was a tactic to buy China time to consolidate its power.

The framework would be endorsed by China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations at a summit in Manila on Monday, a diplomat from one of the regional bloc’s countries said.

The US president added that North Korea “continues to be a problem” and he was hopeful that Chinese President Xi Jinping would “be a tremendous help”.

He said he hoped Russia would also “be a tremendous help”.

In a series of tweets Trump said Xi was “upping sanctions” on North Korea in response to its nuclear and missile programmes and that the Chinese leader wanted Pyongyang to “denuclearise”.

During Trump’s visit to Beijing last week Xi repeated that China would strive for the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula but offered no hint that China would change tack on North Korea, with which it fought side by side in the 1950-53 Korean war against US-led forces.

Additional reporting by Associated Press, Bloomberg