Asia-Pacific stability depends on success of ASEAN code of conduct - Kerry
The United States has been increasingly uneasy at what it sees as China's effort to gain creeping control over waters in the Asia-Pacific, including its November 23 declaration of an air defence identification zone (ADIZ) in an area of the East China Sea that includes islands at the centre of a dispute with Japan.
Speaking in the Indonesian capital during a trip to Asia and the Middle East, Kerry added that negotiations on a Tran-Pacific Partnership trade deal would continue and he believed the U.S. Congress would come to an appropriate conclusion on the trade talks.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations groups Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Brunei.
(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Writing by Michael Taylor; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)