Mike Pompeo additionally denounced China’s claims on the contested Spratly islands.
Washington:
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated Monday that america would deal with Beijing’s pursuit of assets within the dispute-rife South China Sea as unlawful, ramping up strain on one other entrance.
“We’re making clear: Beijing’s claims to offshore assets throughout many of the South China Sea are utterly illegal, as is its marketing campaign of bullying to regulate them,” Pompeo stated in a press release.
The US has lengthy rejected Beijing’s sweeping claims within the South China Sea, aligning itself with Vietnam, the Philippines and different US companions within the area.
However Pompeo went additional by explicitly siding with Southeast Asian nations, after years of america saying that it took no place on the deserves of particular person disputes.
According to the 2016 discovering of a global tribunal, Pompeo stated that the Mischief Reef and Second Thomas Shoal each “fall absolutely below the Philippines’ sovereign rights and jurisdiction.”
Pompeo additionally denounced China’s claims on the contested Spratly islands, the place China earlier this yr introduced administrative districts, which might enable Beijing to develop its maritime claims.
The US consequently now rejects Beijing’s claims within the waters surrounding Vanguard Financial institution off Vietnam, Lucania Shoals off Malaysia, waters thought of in Brunei’s unique financial zone and Natuna Besar off Indonesia, Pompeo stated.
“Any PRC motion to harass different states’ fishing or hydrocarbon improvement in these waters — or to hold out such actions unilaterally — is illegal,” Pompeo stated.
The assertion is the most recent assertive step by President Donald Trump’s administration in opposition to China, which it has more and more portrayed as an enemy forward of November elections.
The US in current weeks has slapped visa restrictions on officers over the remedy of the Uighur and Tibetan minorities in addition to over Beijing’s clampdown in Hong Kong.
Trump has additionally harshly criticized China over the coronavirus pandemic.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
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