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Washington:
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated Monday that the United States 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 are making clear: Beijing’s claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control them,” Pompeo stated in an announcement.
The United States 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.
But Pompeo went additional by explicitly siding with Southeast Asian nations, after years of the United States saying that it took no place on the deserves of particular person disputes.
In line with the 2016 discovering of a global tribunal, Pompeo stated that the Mischief Reef and Second Thomas Shoal each “fall fully under the Philippines’ sovereign rights and jurisdiction.”
Pompeo additionally denounced China’s claims on the contested Spratly islands, the place China earlier this 12 months introduced administrative districts, which might enable Beijing to develop its maritime claims.
The United States in consequence now rejects Beijing’s claims within the waters surrounding Vanguard Bank off Vietnam, Lucania Shoals off Malaysia, waters thought-about in Brunei’s unique financial zone and Natuna Besar off Indonesia, Pompeo stated.
“Any PRC action to harass other states’ fishing or hydrocarbon development in these waters — or to carry out such activities unilaterally — is unlawful,” 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 United States in latest weeks has slapped visa restrictions on officers over the therapy 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.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
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