Beijing, Jan 5 (EFE).– U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry sent a clear warning to China on Sunday regarding Beijing’s possible creation of an air defense identification zone in the South China Sea, saying such a move would be a “provocative and destabilizing act.”

The hypothetical declaration of an air defense zone, discussed in China’s state-run press last week, “would automatically raise tensions and call into serious question China’s commitment to diplomatically manage the territorial disputes of the South China Sea,” Kerry said during a visit to Mongolia.

“So we urge China not to move unilaterally in ways that are provocative,” the top U.S. diplomat added in joint statements in Ulaanbaatar with Mongolian Foreign Minister Lundeg Purevsuren after a meeting.

Kerry made a brief stop in Mongolia before traveling to Beijing, where he arrived Sunday afternoon to participate on Monday and Tuesday with U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew in a meeting of the Strategic and Economic Dialogue between China and the United States.

In recent months, tension in the South China Sea has increased as Beijing has been constructing artificial islands – complete with lengthy airstrips with potential military uses – on islets and atolls in the Spratly Islands, sovereignty of which is also claimed by The Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei.

U.S. military aircraft and vessels regularly pass through the zone, where the Pentagon is upholding the right to freedom of navigation through what it considers to be international waters, a stance that rankles Beijing, which claims the huge area as sovereign Chinese territory.

Kerry said that Washington considers it crucial that no country act unilaterally to militarize the region, urging a “diplomatic and political solution” to any territorial disputes. EFE