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s next year’s ASEAN chair, Jakarta is expected to help solve the dispute between ASEAN states and China in the South China Sea following the tensions with the US.

The South China Sea dispute could become a major flashpoint between China and ASEAN as the latter has welcomed a US role in contested sovereignty claims between Beijing and ASEAN countries.

Reuters reported that the second ASEAN-US Summit in Washington may produce a joint statement that highlights China’s aggressive stance in the waters claimed by the ASEAN members of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Indonesia — a non-participant in the dispute — welcomed that the US play a role in resolving these disputes during the visit of Defense Minister Robert Gates to Jakarta. This US involvement has upped the stakes in these South China Sea disputes amid tensions arising between Beijing and Washington over currency, human rights and arms sales to Taiwan.

Sumadi Brotodiningrat, a seasoned diplomat, said Indonesia would act on behalf of ASEAN to make sure that these conflicts were solved amicably.

He shied away from possiblities that Jakarta or ASEAN members might take any new positions that would harm relations with China and beyond what has been agreed under the 2002 agreement on peaceful cooperation in the South China Sea.

“New statements you see recently are actually the reinforcement of the 2002 agreement,” he said.

Vietnam, as the current chairman of ASEAN, have reportedly mobilized others for its own cause in the has South China Sea but experts said Indonesia has also its own interest: Which is to make sure these disputes will not affect regional stability.

The 2002 agreement has stated that ASEAN nations would meet among themselves before they speak to China although China prefers to talk bilaterally with each claimant. Now, the conflicts may get more complicated as ASEAN members are looking to allow the US a role in solving these disputes, which may come under the auspices of the ASEAN Regional Forum or the expanded East Asia Summit (EAS).

EAS, a 16-strong grouping that has already brought together ASEAN along with Japan, China, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India, is set to welcome new members of the US and Russia next year.

A professor at Peking University, who talked to The Jakarta Post Tuesday at a forum to mark the 60th anniversary of relations between Indonesia and China, said Beijing has no major concerns with the proposed US membership of the EAS.

“We have seen that EAS is not a forum that can look into particular issues and it will remain that way,” he said.

The US is reportedly looking forward to make the EAS a strategic forum to discuss political and security issues — a move that could peturb China as it would like to keep the EAS in the second tier of diplomacy.

Indonesia, which first announced welcoming the US into the EAS earlier this year after a period of reluctancy, has yet to reveal what plans it has for the expanded EAS and how it would try to accommodate both China and the US at the same table.

When asked about how China would expect Jakarta to play its role in the dispute, the Chinese expert said: “We have to see first what is the interest of the US in the South China Sea and I believe no one has thought through any options yet so far”.z