UPDATE) 

WASHINGTON: A senior United States Department of

State official said Washington will oppose any attempt to block US
access to the South China Sea.

"We expect to be in the South China Sea as we have been," Amy

Archibald, State Department director of the Office of the Maritime
Southeast Asia, told visiting Filipino journalists on Wednesday.

Tension has been building in the strategic waterway, which is the

subject of overlapping claims by the Philippines, China, Brunei,
Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.

The Spratly island chain in the South China Sea is believed to be rich
in oil and mineral deposits.
   
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Archibald said the Code of Conduct being drafted to govern activities

in the South China Sea "would be important if it does lead to the
international rules-based system that allows a free and open and
prosperous Pacific."

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"And we will definitely oppose any effort not to include us," she
stressed.

Archibald said the US does not want to see "a Code of Conduct that
will be used to exclude important regional partners."

China has long maintained that practically all of the South China Sea
is part of its territory, based on the "nine-day line" concept.

In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in

favor of the Philippines after it challenged China's claim on the
disputed waters.

China refuses to accept the ruling.

In a separate interview, Greg Poling, senior fellow and director at the

Center for Strategic and International Studies, said, "Nobody's going
to accept Chinese restrictions on lawful activities in international
waters."

Archibald said that the US being a Pacific nation itself has "a
commitment to a free and open Pacific.... And to extent a code of
conduct can help us with those objectives."

"I think we prosper when we have international norms and stability

and so we are looking for a code of conduct that would essentially
promote international rules-based order in the maritime environment,"
she said.

Asked about China's refusal to recognize the arbitral ruling, Archibald

replied: "It depends on what the text looks like. I understand that's
China's position, but we have a different one."

A senior US defense official, in a separate interview, said Washington

and Manila are negotiating to add five more sites for the
implementation of their Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement
(EDCA).

Asked if such a move is related to the US commitment to ensuring

sovereignty in the South China Sea, the official, who agreed to be
interviewed on condition that he not be identified, said, "I think they
are very much related to our commitment to standing beside the
Philippine as a treaty ally. So, I would say that that is broader than the
South China Sea."

"But it is ensuring that we are able to support the Philippines, work

alongside the Philippines in responding to a range of challenges
including as I mentioned, any kind of disaster or other problems in the
Philippines that we would want to offer support for," the official said.
Archibald said US-Philippine relations "are in a very positive
moment.... The Biden administration has already had frequent
engagements with the new Marcos team at a number of levels."

"I think the range of engagements that we've seen between the two
administrations reflects broadly the commitment of the United States
has to its alliance with the Philippines which is something that endures
across the Biden administration that is bipartisan and is longstanding,"
she said.