US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Southeast Asian leaders today that the US is concerned about China's “increasingly dangerous and unlawful” activities in the disputed South China Sea during an annual summit meeting, and pledged that the US would continue to uphold freedom of navigation in the vital sea trade route.
He also said the US believed “it is also important to maintain our shared commitment to protect stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
Photo: AFP
The 10-member ASEAN meeting with Blinken followed a series of violent confrontations at sea between China and ASEAN members, the Philippines and Vietnam, which have fueled concerns that China’s increasingly assertive actions in the waterways could spiral into a full-scale conflict.
China, which claims almost the entire sea, has overlapping claims with Taiwan, as well as ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.
“We are very concerned about China’s increasingly dangerous and unlawful activities in the South China Sea which have injured people, harm vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolutions of disputes,” said Blinken, who is filling in for US President Joe Biden, in his opening speech at the US-ASEAN summit. “The United States will continue to support freedom of navigation, and freedom of overflight in the Indo-Pacific.”
Chinese and Philippine vessels have clashed repeatedly this year, and Vietnam said last week that Chinese forces assaulted its fishers in the disputed sea. China has also sent patrol vessels to areas that Indonesia and Malaysia claim as exclusive economic zones.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr complained to summit leaders yesterday that his country “continues to be subject to harassment and intimidation” by China.
He said it was “regrettable that the overall situation in the South China Sea remains tense and unchanged” due to China’s actions, which he said violated international law.
He has called for more urgency in ASEAN-China negotiations on a code of conduct to govern the South China Sea.
Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) earlier this week warned of "real risks of an accident spiraling into conflict” if the sea dispute is not addressed.
Malaysia, which takes over the rotating ASEAN chair next year, is expected to push to accelerate talks on the code of conduct.
Officials have agreed to try and complete the code by 2026, but talks have been hampered by sticky issues including disagreements over whether the pact should be binding.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強) was defiant during talks yesterday.
He called the South China Sea a “shared home,” but repeated China’s assertion that it was merely protecting its sovereign rights, officials said.
Li also blamed meddling by “external forces” who sought to “introduce bloc confrontation and geopolitical conflicts into Asia.”
Li did not name the foreign forces, but China has previously warned the US not to meddle in the region’s territorial disputes.
Blinken also attended an 18-nation East Asia Summit, along with the Chinese premier, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov and leaders from Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.
ASEAN has treaded carefully on the sea dispute with China, which is the bloc's largest trading partner and its third-largest investor.
It has not marred trade relations, with the two sides focusing on expanding a free trade area covering a market of 2 billion people.
Blinken said the annual ASEAN summit talks were a platform to address other shared challenges, including the civil war in Myanmar, North Korea’s “destabilizing behavior” and Russia’s war aggression in Ukraine.
He said the US remained the top foreign investor in the region and aims to strengthen its partnership with ASEAN.
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