MANILA, Philippines – Washington does not recognize China’s air defense identification zone over the East China Sea, visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday.

“The United States does not recognize that zone and does not accept it,” Kerry said during a news conference yesterday with Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario.

“The zone should not be implemented and China should refrain from taking similar unilateral actions, particularly in the South China Sea,” he said.

He also announced $40 million in new assistance in part to help the Philippines protect its territorial waters amid rising tensions with China even as he urged nations involved to “lower the intensity.”

The money, from a US program known as the Global Security Contingency Fund, will be spent over three years and will be split between improving the Philippine Coast Guard’s maritime security abilities and boosting counterterrorism capacity for the Philippines National Police in Mindanao, where Washington has also backed a decade-long Philippine government campaign against al-Qaeda-linked local militants.

The new aid is intended to complement a $32.5-million assistance package, which Kerry announced Monday in Vietnam, that will help Southeast Asian nations protect their territorial waters. Up to $18 million of that money will go to provide the Vietnamese Coast Guard with five new fast patrol boats.

Read more: http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/12/18/1269385/us-does-not-recognize-china-air-defense-zone