Foreign Minister Antony Blinken reassured the Philippine top diplomat on Wednesday in a call for the US to unite with Southeast Asian countries following recent action by China in the region, a report said.
Reuters reported that Blinken told Teodoro Locsin, his Filipino counterpart, that the US rejected Beijing’s claims to the South China Sea and only recognized claims under international law.
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China on Sunday increased activity in Taiwan’s airspace by flying 15 fighter jets between Taiwan and the Pratas Islands in the South China Sea, a report said.
Reuters, quoting Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense, reported that the planes included six J-10 fighters, two US-30s and other military aircraft. A day earlier, China had flown eight bombers and four fighters into the same airspace, the report said.
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Blinken, said in a confirmation hearing on Tuesday that there is ‘no doubt’ that China poses the greatest threat to any US for the US and that the Trump administration rightly takes a stricter stance towards the Asian power.
“President Trump seemed to be taking a tougher approach to China,” said Blinken, who served as then-Vice President Biden’s national security adviser before being promoted to deputy secretary of state under Barack Obama. “Not the way he went about it in a number of ways, but the basics were right.”
Fox News’ Morgan Phillips Contributed to This Report