VIENTIANE: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hit out at China’s “escalatory and unlawful actions” in the South China Sea on Saturday, hours before he was due to hold talks with Beijing’s top diplomat at a regional meeting in Laos.
Blinken is in capital Vientiane for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers meeting, part of an Asian tour aimed at reinforcing regional ties in the face of an increasingly assertive Beijing.
He has prioritized promoting a “free and open” Asia-Pacific region — a thinly veiled criticism of China’s regional economic, strategic and territorial ambitions.
The United States and ASEAN had to work together to “address challenges,” Blinken told ministers from the 10-member bloc, including China’s “escalatory and unlawful actions taken against the Philippines in the South China Sea over the last few months.”
Manila is locked in a longstanding territorial row with Beijing over parts of the strategic waterway through which trillions of dollars worth of trade passes annually.
On Saturday Manila said it had successfully resupplied troops on the Second Thomas Shoal — the focus of violent clashes between Chinese and Philippines vessels in recent months.
The mission was carried out under a deal agreed with Beijing last week.
“We are pleased to take note of the successful resupply today,” Blinken said.
“We applaud that and hope and expect to see that it continues going forward.”
Blinken is due to meet China’s Wang Yi later Saturday.
The two will “exchange views on issues of common concern,” China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Friday.
Washington-Beijing competition
This is Blinken’s 18th visit to Asia since taking office more than three years ago, reflecting the fierce competition between Washington and Beijing in the region.
He notably arrives two days after the foreign ministers of China and Russia met with the 10-nation ASEAN bloc — and each other on the sidelines of the summit.
Wang and Sergei Lavrov had discussed “building a new security architecture for Eurasia,” according to Moscow’s foreign ministry.
The pair also agreed to jointly “counter any attempts by extra-regional forces to interfere in Southeast Asian affairs,” it said.
China has a strong political and economic partnership with Russia, with NATO members labelling Beijing as a “key facilitator” of Moscow’s involvement in the war in Ukraine.
Ongoing tensions
The temperature between Manila and Beijing remains high, despite the deal last week on resupplying Filipino troops stationed on a disputed reef.
“We hope China implements the agreement,” Philippine foreign secretary Enrique Manalo told reporters in Vientiane late on Friday.
“I think that would be an important step forward in diffusing tensions and hopefully lead to other areas of cooperation on the South China Sea.”
Beijing claims the waterway — through which trillions of dollars of trade passes annually — almost in its entirety despite an international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.
A Filipino sailor lost a thumb in the latest June 17 confrontation when Chinese coast guard members wielding knives, sticks and an axe foiled a Philippine Navy attempt to resupply its troops.
China lashed out earlier this year after Blinken said that Washington was ready to defend the Philippines if its forces, ships or aircraft came under attack in the South China Sea.
Beijing has insisted that the United States has “no right” to interfere in the South China Sea.
The two countries also remain at loggerheads over trade, human rights and the status of the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which China claims sovereignty over.
Blinken is scheduled to travel to Hanoi later Saturday to extend US condolences to Vietnamese officials after the passing of communist leader Nguyen Phu Trong.
ASEAN ministers are expected to issue a joint communique at the end of their three-day meeting.
One diplomatic source said the statement is being held up by lack of consensus over the wording of paragraphs on the Myanmar conflict and disputes in the South China Sea.
Myanmar’s junta has been banned from high-level ASEAN summits over its 2021 coup and crackdown on dissent but has sent two bureaucrats to represent it at the Laos talks.
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Blinken hits out at China’s ‘unlawful actions’ in South China Sea
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Blinken hits out at China’s ‘unlawful actions’ in South China Sea
- Blinken is in capital Vientiane for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers meeting
- He has prioritized promoting a “free and open” Asia-Pacific region
India forced to defend US trade deal as doubts mount
- The deal announced this month has rattled India’s powerful farmers’ unions, who argue that cheap US imports would throttle local producers in a country where agriculture employs more than 700 million
MUMBAI: India is scrambling to defend a new trade deal with the United States that critics have branded as a surrender to Washington, as countries navigate the fallout from President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
The deal announced this month has rattled India’s powerful farmers’ unions, who argue that cheap US imports would throttle local producers in a country where agriculture employs more than 700 million people.
Details of the deal remain sparse, limited to a joint statement and a White House factsheet, but New Delhi says an interim pact should be finalized by the end of March.
Analysts warn that other elements of the agreement could also prove volatile.
“In the Trumpian era, there is nothing called certainty,” trade expert Abhijit Das told AFP.
Even if the deal is signed in a few weeks, it would only hold until Trump “decides to impose more tariffs for any perceived inconsistency,” he said.
The most contentious pledge is India’s stated intention to buy $500 billion worth of US goods over five years. India’s annual imports from the US last fiscal year were around $45 billion.
Doubling annual purchases to $100 billion “is unrealistic,” said Ajay Srivastava of the Global Trade Research Initiative, a New Delhi-based think tank.
- Intention not commitment -
Aircraft purchases were a major component of this commitment but even a major expansion of Boeing aircraft orders — decisions made by private airlines — would fall far short, he said.
“Even if India were to add another 200 Boeing aircraft over the next five years, at an estimated cost of $300 million per aircraft, the total value would be about $60 billion.”
Some economists argue the language around purchases is non?binding, hence it protects New Delhi if it fails to meet the goal.
“Framing the target as an intention, rather than a commitment, reduces the risk of the deal later breaking down,” Shivaan Tandon of Capital Economics said in a note on Friday.
Trump’s unpredictability also continues to loom large.
He recently threatened higher tariffs on South Korea over perceived delays by Seoul in implementing a trade agreement announced last July.
Another flashpoint is Washington’s rollback of a 25 percent duty after what it described as India’s “commitment” to stop buying Russian oil.
This promise finds no mention in the joint statement and has neither been confirmed nor denied by the Indian government.
India says its energy policy is driven by national interests and that the country depends on multiple sources for crude oil imports.
- ‘Oil plank’ -
New Delhi’s Russian oil imports have dropped from a mid?2025 peak of more than two million barrels a day to about 1.1 million in January.
Local reports say state-owned refiners have already started purchasing Venezuelan oil for delivery in April.
But it remains unclear if Russian purchases will fall to zero.
The outlook hinges heavily on Mumbai-headquartered Nayara Energy, partly owned by Russia’s Rosneft, which Bloomberg reported plans to keep buying around 400,000 barrels a day.
This will likely remain a bone of contention, given the Trump administration’s stance that it intends to monitor India’s imports.
“New Delhi continues to avoid publicly confirming a full halt and frames energy sourcing as driven by price and availability, which underlines ongoing ambiguity over the oil plank,” Darren Tay of BMI, a unit of Fitch Solutions, told AFP.
“There is tentative evidence that Indian refiners are reducing spot purchases of Russian crude, implying partial adjustment rather than a formal pledge,” Tay said.
The deal remains “too fragile and politically contested” to justify a growth forecast change for India, he added.
The deal announced this month has rattled India’s powerful farmers’ unions, who argue that cheap US imports would throttle local producers in a country where agriculture employs more than 700 million people.
Details of the deal remain sparse, limited to a joint statement and a White House factsheet, but New Delhi says an interim pact should be finalized by the end of March.
Analysts warn that other elements of the agreement could also prove volatile.
“In the Trumpian era, there is nothing called certainty,” trade expert Abhijit Das told AFP.
Even if the deal is signed in a few weeks, it would only hold until Trump “decides to impose more tariffs for any perceived inconsistency,” he said.
The most contentious pledge is India’s stated intention to buy $500 billion worth of US goods over five years. India’s annual imports from the US last fiscal year were around $45 billion.
Doubling annual purchases to $100 billion “is unrealistic,” said Ajay Srivastava of the Global Trade Research Initiative, a New Delhi-based think tank.
- Intention not commitment -
Aircraft purchases were a major component of this commitment but even a major expansion of Boeing aircraft orders — decisions made by private airlines — would fall far short, he said.
“Even if India were to add another 200 Boeing aircraft over the next five years, at an estimated cost of $300 million per aircraft, the total value would be about $60 billion.”
Some economists argue the language around purchases is non?binding, hence it protects New Delhi if it fails to meet the goal.
“Framing the target as an intention, rather than a commitment, reduces the risk of the deal later breaking down,” Shivaan Tandon of Capital Economics said in a note on Friday.
Trump’s unpredictability also continues to loom large.
He recently threatened higher tariffs on South Korea over perceived delays by Seoul in implementing a trade agreement announced last July.
Another flashpoint is Washington’s rollback of a 25 percent duty after what it described as India’s “commitment” to stop buying Russian oil.
This promise finds no mention in the joint statement and has neither been confirmed nor denied by the Indian government.
India says its energy policy is driven by national interests and that the country depends on multiple sources for crude oil imports.
- ‘Oil plank’ -
New Delhi’s Russian oil imports have dropped from a mid?2025 peak of more than two million barrels a day to about 1.1 million in January.
Local reports say state-owned refiners have already started purchasing Venezuelan oil for delivery in April.
But it remains unclear if Russian purchases will fall to zero.
The outlook hinges heavily on Mumbai-headquartered Nayara Energy, partly owned by Russia’s Rosneft, which Bloomberg reported plans to keep buying around 400,000 barrels a day.
This will likely remain a bone of contention, given the Trump administration’s stance that it intends to monitor India’s imports.
“New Delhi continues to avoid publicly confirming a full halt and frames energy sourcing as driven by price and availability, which underlines ongoing ambiguity over the oil plank,” Darren Tay of BMI, a unit of Fitch Solutions, told AFP.
“There is tentative evidence that Indian refiners are reducing spot purchases of Russian crude, implying partial adjustment rather than a formal pledge,” Tay said.
The deal remains “too fragile and politically contested” to justify a growth forecast change for India, he added.
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