November 4, 2015 4:36 am

Rivalry between China and the US spilled over into a major Asian defence ministers’ meeting on Wednesday when plans to issue a joint statement were cancelled after failure to reach an agreement on language about the South China Sea.

A senior US defence official said the Asia-Pacific defence ministers had not been able to agree on a planned declaration about regional security issues after China lobbied against any mention of disputes in the South China Sea.

A signing ceremony, which was to have brought together the defence leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the US, China and six other countries from the region, had been cancelled, officials said.

“The reason the signing ceremony is in doubt is because the Chinese lobbied to keep any reference to the South China Sea out of the final joint declaration,” the US official said. “Understandably a number of Asean countries‎ felt that was inappropriate.” The official later confirmed there would be no statement.

The diplomatic flare-up comes a week after a US warship sailed within 12 nautical miles of an artificial island in the South China Sea that is claimed by China and where it is constructing an airfield with potential military use.

At a meeting on Tuesday evening, Chinese defence minister General Chang Wanquan told his US counterpart Ashton Carter that the mission had been “illegal” and that China had a “bottom line” when it came to US exercises in the South China Sea. Mr Carter said that the US would continue to sail “wherever international law allows”, including the South China Sea.

Among Asean members, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Brunei all have territorial claims in the South China Sea that are disputed by China, and many of those governments have expressed considerable concern at Beijing’s rapid programme of land reclamation in the area over the past 18 months.

A 2012 Asean meeting in Cambodia ended without a common statement after a similar disagreement over language about the South China Sea, amid claims that China had placed heavy diplomatic pressure on some members of the group.

Chinese officials at the defence ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur could not immediately be reached for comment.

A senior US official travelling with Mr Carter said the disagreement over the statement “reflects the divide that China’s reclamation and militarisation in the South China Sea has caused in the region”. The official added that “in our view, no statement is better than one that avoids the important issue of China’s action in the South China Sea”.

On Thursday Mr Carter will visit the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier that has been navigating through the South China Sea