U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has urged Asian countries embroiled in simmering territorial disputes to work together to ease rather than raise tensions. Hillary Clinton ended a visit to the Russian seaport of Vladivostok for a Pacific Rim summit on Sunday with a call for strengthening "diplomatic involvement toward resolving these tensions." She said that given the fragility of the global recovery, any confrontation that might raise doubts over stability and peace in the region would be counter to everyone's interests, according to a report of the Associated Press. Hillary Clinton discussed the issue with the leaders of both Japan and South Korea, who are at odds over an islet claimed by both. She said all the region's leaders appeared to recognize the risks to the Asian economic engine "in what is still a fragile global economy."
