Pentagon chief: China’s SCS claims have no basis
LLOYD AUSTIN’S REMARKS ABOUT CHINA CAME AS HE UNDERTOOK HIS FIRST TRIP OF SOUTHEAST ASIA AS U.S. DEFENCE SECRETARY
Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said on Tuesday that Beijing’s expansive claims in the South China Sea (SCS) have “no basis in international law”, taking aim at China’s growing assertiveness in the hotly contested waters.
Austin’s broadside came at the start of his first trip to Southeast Asia as US defence secretary, as he seeks to rally allies in the region as a bulwark to China.
US President Joe Biden’s administration wants to reset relations with Asian countries and build alliances to face Beijing, after the turbulence and unpredictability of the Donald Trump era.
Speaking in Singapore, Austin criticised China’s actions in the disputed sea, where Beijing has overlapping territorial claims
SINGAPORE:
with several Southeast Asian states.
“Beijing’s claim to the vast majority of the South China Sea has no basis in international law,” he said in a speech hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank.
“That assertion treads on the sovereignty of the states in the region,” he said, adding that the US would support countries in defending their rights.
China claims almost all of the resource-rich sea, through which trillions of dollars in shipping trade passes annually, with competing claims from Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Beijing has been accused of deploying a range of military hardware including anti-ship missiles and surface-to-air missiles there, and ignored a 2016 international tribunal decision that declared its historical claim over most of the waters to be without basis.
Tensions have escalated in recent months between Beijing and rival claimants.
Austin said that the US “will not flinch when our interests are threatened” - but he insisted Washington does “not seek confrontation” with China. “I am committed to pursuing a constructive, stable relationship with China, including stronger crisis communications with the People’s Liberation Army.”