Antony Blinken says the US will defend the Philippines against attacks in the South China Sea

The United States will defend the Philippines against attacks in the South China Sea, Foreign Minister Antony Blinken told his counterpart in Manila.

Blinken stressed the importance of the treaty between the United Nations and the Philippines and ‘its clear application to armed attacks on the Philippine army, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific Ocean, which includes the South China Sea’, according to a State Department . from a phone call between the two released Wednesday.

He told Philippine Foreign Minister Teodoro Locsin Jr. that the US rejected China’s claims in the disputed South China Sea “to the extent that it exceeded the maritime territories that China may claim under international law,” said the Department of Foreign Affairs.

According to the lecture – the first by the Secretary of State who explicitly mentioned China’s major territorial claims – it is said that Blinken will “stand with the claimants of Southeast Asia” in light of the pressure from Beijing.

Shortly after the conversation, Locsin tweeted that he and Blinken “will get a lot done soon.”

The call comes a day after Locsin’s foreign ministry confirmed it had filed a diplomatic protest over China’s new coastguard law, which gives Chinese maritime authorities permission to shoot at foreign vessels.

Locsin earlier said Beijing’s legislation, which was formally passed by the National People’s Congress on Friday, is ‘none of us’, before revealing that he has changed his mind.

“While the establishment of the law is a sovereign privilege, this one – given the area concerned or for that matter the open South China Sea – is a verbal threat of war for any country that defies the law; which, if indisputable , “subject to it,” he wrote on Twitter.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the law was in line with international practice. It has nevertheless raised alarm due to Beijing’s extensive claims on reefs in the South China Sea, which are disputed by regional neighbors, including Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

Territorial disputes also extend to the East China Sea, where the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands are claimed by both China and Taiwan.

There is a strong military presence in the South China Sea, with the People’s Liberation Army conducting three days of naval exercises until January 30, a few days after the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt was deployed to the region for his own exercises.

Other calls Blinken made on Wednesday included talks with his counterparts in Thailand and Australia. Important regional allies in Japan and South Korea were called on Tuesday, according to the foreign ministry.

One of President Joe Biden’s campaign promises was to return the United States to a leading role in regional and world affairs. His cabinet choices appear to indicate a strong desire to uphold US interests in Asia and counter China’s growing influence.

In almost every call to foreign ministers, Blinken stressed the importance of a ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’, a strategy formalized under the Donald Trump administration.