US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of a regional summit in Laos on Saturday, hours after he criticised Beijing’s “escalatory and unlawful actions” in the South China Sea.
Blinken and Wang shook hands and greeted each other in front of cameras but made no further comments before holding talks behind closed doors for what will be their sixth meeting since June 23, when Blinken visited Beijing in a significant sign of improvement in strained relations between the world’s two largest economies.
Though Blinken took aim at China’s actions against U.S. defense ally the Philippines in the South China Sea during a meeting with Southeast Asian counterparts on Saturday, he also praised the two countries’ diplomacy after Manila completed a resupply mission for troops in the region, which Beijing also claims.
The presence of the troops has angered China for years, and there have been repeated clashes with the Philippines over Manila’s mission to a naval ship docked at Second Thomas Shoal, raising concerns about escalating tensions regionally.
This week the two sides have agreed on how to conduct these missions.
“We are pleased to mark the successful resupply of the Second Thomas Shoal today, a result of an agreement between the Philippines and China,” Blinken told ASEAN foreign ministers.
“We appreciate that and hope it continues.”
Situation in Gaza ‘catastrophic’
Blinken and Wang attended the security-focused ASEAN Regional Forum in Laos on Saturday along with top diplomats from major powers including Russia, India, Australia, Japan, European, Britain and others before heading to their meeting.
Blinken earlier said the United States was “working intensely every single day” to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and find a path to more lasting peace and security.
His remarks came after Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said the need for lasting peace was urgent and international law should apply to all. The remarks by the world’s largest Muslim-majority country were a veiled reference to recent rulings by two international courts on Israel’s Gaza attacks.
“We cannot close our eyes to the terrible humanitarian situation in Gaza,” he said.
More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in fighting in Gaza since Israel began the invasion, according to Palestinian health officials, although they do not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
Israeli officials estimate that about 14,000 fighters from militant groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been killed or captured, down from an estimated 25,000 at the start of the war.
The war began when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping about 250 others, according to Israeli figures.
Also in Laos, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said guidelines on the operation of US nuclear assets on the Korean Peninsula would certainly raise regional security concerns.
According to South Korean news agency Yonhap, Lavrov said he had not been briefed on the details of the plan, which is a cause of concern for Russia.
“We don’t yet know what it means, but there is no doubt that it will cause additional concerns,” he was quoted as saying by Russian state agency RIA.
‘This is not sustainable’
Ahead of both summits on Saturday, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong urged Myanmar’s military rulers to take a different path and end the intensifying civil war, and pressed the generals to honour their commitment to follow ASEAN’s five-point consensus peace plan.
The conflict pits Myanmar’s well-equipped military against a loose coalition of ethnic minority insurgent groups and an armed resistance movement that is gaining ground and testing the generals’ ability to rule.
The junta has largely ignored peace efforts promoted by ASEAN, and the 10-member group has hit a wall with all sides refusing to engage in talks.
“We are seeing instability, insecurity, deaths and suffering caused by the conflict,” Wong told reporters.
“My message to the regime on behalf of Australia is this is not sustainable for you or your people.”
The fighting is estimated to have displaced 2.6 million people. The military has been condemned for using excessive force in air strikes on civilian areas and accused of atrocities, which it dismisses as Western propaganda.
ASEAN issued a statement on Saturday, two days after a meeting of its top diplomats, stressing that it remains united behind its peace plan for Myanmar, and said it has full confidence in the resolve of its special envoy to find an “inclusive and durable peaceful solution” to the conflict.
It condemned violence against civilians and urged all parties in Myanmar to cease hostilities.
ASEAN welcomed unspecified practical measures to ease tensions in the South China Sea and prevent accidents and miscalculations, while urging all stakeholders to refrain from actions that could complicate and escalate disputes.
The ministers described North Korea’s missile tests as a worrying development and called for a peaceful resolution of the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, expressing concern at the dire humanitarian situation and “alarming casualties”.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
