Blinken criticises China’s ‘escalating actions’ at sea ahead of Wang meeting

By Simon Lewis

VIENTIANE (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, shortly before meeting his Chinese counterpart on Saturday, urged Southeast Asian countries to help address challenges including Beijing’s “escalating and unlawful actions” in the South China Sea.

Blinken also called the civil war in Myanmar “heartbreaking” and stressed to foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) the need to work together to tackle issues like the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, North Korea’s missile programmes.

Though Blinken singled out China’s over its actions against U.S. defence ally the Philippines in the South China Sea, he lauded both countries for their diplomacy hours after Manila completed a resupply mission to troops in an area also claimed by Beijing.

The troop presence has for years angered China, which has clashed repeatedly with the Philippines over Manila’s missions to troops on a navy ship grounded at the Second Thomas Shoal, causing regional concern about an escalation.

The two sides this week reached an arrangement over how to conduct those missions.

“We are pleased to take note of the successful resupply today of the Second Thomas shoal, which is the product of an agreement reached between the Philippines and China,” Blinken told ASEAN counterparts.

“We applaud that and hope and expect to see that it continues going forward.”

GAZA SITUATION ‘DIRE’

Blinken will hold talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi after Saturday’s security-focussed ASEAN Regional Forum in Laos, which will be attended by top diplomats of major powers including Russia, Australia, Japan, the European, Britain and others.

Blinken also said the United States was “working intensely every single day” to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and find a path to more enduring peace and security.

His remarks follow those of Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, who said the need for sustainable peace was urgent. “We cannot continue closing our eyes to see the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza,” she said.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong urged Myanmar’s military rulers to take a different path and end an intensifying civil war, pressing the generals to abide by their commitment to follow ASEAN’s five-point consensus peace plan.

The conflict pits Myanmar’s well-equipped military against a loose alliance of ethnic minority rebel groups and an armed resistance movement that has been gaining ground and testing the generals’ ability to govern.

The junta has largely ignored the ASEAN-promoted peace effort, and the 10-member bloc, of which Myanmar is a member, has hit a wall as all sides refuse to enter into dialogue.

“We see the instability, the insecurity, the deaths, the pain that is being caused by the conflict,” Wong told reporters.

“Fundamentally, my message from Australia to the regime is, this is not sustainable for you or for your people. And we would urge them to take a different path and to reflect the five-point consensus that ASEAN has put in place.”

An estimated 2.6 million people have been displaced by fighting. The junta has been condemned for excessive force in its air strikes on civilian areas and accused of atrocities, which it has dismissed as Western disinformation.