State Sec.: U.S. worried about China’s actions in South China Sea

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that the U.S. is concerned about China’s “increasingly dangerous and unlawful” activities in the disputed South China Sea.

“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 during the 12th ASEAN-US Summit, held in Vientiane in Laos.

Blinken pledged that the U.S. would continue to uphold freedom of navigation in the vital sea trade route.

“The United States will continue to support freedom of navigation, and freedom of overflight in the Indo Pacific,” he added.

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 the Russia-Ukraine war.

The 12th ASEAN-US Summit followed a series of violent confrontations at sea between China and ASEAN members Philippines and Vietnam.

Source: Kuwait News Agency