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Nusa Dua. Increasing geopolitical tensions between the United States and China in Southeast Asia were on full display as Asia-Pacific leaders held meetings in Bali on Friday

At the heart is China’s perceived growing assertiveness and aggressiveness in the South China Sea, a crucial shipping lane believed to contain valuable oil and minerals. Littoral countries, including China and several members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, have overlapping border claims there.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said “outside forces” had no excuse to get involved in the complex maritime dispute, a veiled warning to the United States and other countries to keep out.

“It ought to be resolved through friendly consultations and discussions by countries directly involved,” Wen told a meeting of Southeast Asian leaders. “Outside forces should not, under any pretext, get involved.”

The remark comes as US President Barack Obama is seeking to reassert his country’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region to counter China’s growing influence.

Under US plans to expand its military role there as unveiled by Obama in Australia on Thursday, US Marines, ships and aircraft will be deployed to northern Australia starting next year. The deployment, to reach 2,500 troops by 2016, will expand direct US military presence in Asia beyond Korea, where it has 28,000 troops, and Japan, with  50,000, into Southeast Asia and closer to the South China Sea.

Obama also declared that  America was “here to stay” as a Pacific power.

On Friday, Wen offered Asean countries $10 billion in infrastructure loans and promised that China would “forever be a good neighbor, good friend and good partner” of Asean. He announced the establishment of a 3 billion yuan ($470 million) fund to step up maritime cooperation with Asean states including in marine research, navigation safety and combating transnational crimes.

Japan, which in past years has seen a decline in its regional and global roles, also offered help for infrastructure projects in the region worth $25 billion. It also, in an implicit challenge to China’s clout in the region, called for a multilateral forum to discuss maritime cooperation across Asia.

Maritime security will be front and center when the East Asia Summit, which brings together Asean’s 10 members with their eight dialogue partners — Japan, China, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, India, the United States and Russia — convenes in Bali today.

Beijing wants to resolve the dispute through bilateral negotiations, but other claimants — Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei — prefer a multilateral approach, which opens the way for an indirect role for the United States.

Reuters, AFP