US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday urged China to stop aggressive actions in the Indo-Pacific region. Antony Blinken is presently in an official trip to Indonesia.
During his speech, Blinken said that Washington would work with ally nations to defend the rules-based order and countries should have the right to choose their own path.
He said that there are concerns from Northeast to Southeast Asia about the aggressive behaviour of China in the region. “Claiming open seas as their own. Distorting open markets through subsidies to its state-run companies. Denying the exports or revoking deals for countries whose policies it does not agree with,” Blinken said in his speech.
Additionally, he asserted that Washington is committed to maintain freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, and that Beijing’s actions threaten the movement of more than $3 trillion in economic activity each year.
China has claimed that almost all the resource-rich sea, with competing claims from other Southeast Asian countries as well as the island of Taiwan.
