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.
Blinken hits out at China’s ‘unlawful actions’ in South China Sea
https://arab.news/zyjwa
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
US Justice Department official eyes cases against Cuba leaders as Trump floats ‘friendly takeover’
- “Working group” formed to build cases against people connected to the Cuban government
- Trump’s has increasingly displayed aggressive stance against Cuba’s communist leadership
MIAMI: The top Justice Department prosecutor in Miami is considering criminal investigations of Cuban government officials, according to people familiar with the matter. The inquiry comes as President Donald Trump has raised the possibility of a “friendly takeover” of the communist-run island.
Jason Reding Quiñones, the US attorney for the Southern District of Florida, has created a “working group” that includes federal prosecutors and officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies to try to build cases against people connected to the Cuban government and its Communist Party, according to one of the people. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the effort.
It was not immediately clear which Cuban officials the office is targeting or what criminal charges prosecutors may be looking to bring.
The Justice Department said in a statement Friday that “federal prosecutors from across the country work every day to pursue justice, which includes efforts to combat transnational crime.”
The effort is taking place against the backdrop of Trump’s increasingly aggressive stance against Cuba’s communist leadership.
Emboldened by the US capture of Cuba’s close ally, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Trump last month said his administration was in high-level talks with officials in Havana to pursue “a friendly takeover” of the country. He repeated those claims this week, saying his attention would turn back to Cuba once the war with Iran winds down.
“They want to make a deal so bad,” Trump said of Cuba’s leadership.
While Cuba has faded from Washington’s radar as a major national security threat in recent decades, it remains a priority in the US Attorney’s office in Miami, whose political, economic and cultural life is dominated by Cuban-American exiles.
The FBI field office has a dedicated Cuba group that in 2024 was instrumental in the arrest of former US Ambassador Victor Manuel Rocha on charges of serving as a secret agent of Cuba stretching back to the 1970s.
In recent weeks, several Miami Republicans, in addition to Florida Sen. Rick Scott, have called on the Trump administration to reopen its criminal investigation into the 1996 shootdown of four planes operated by anti-communist exiles.
In a letter to Trump on Feb. 13, lawmakers including Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar and Carlos Gimenez highlighted decades-old news reports indicating that former President Raúl Castro — the head of Cuba’s military at the time — gave the order to shoot down the unarmed Cessna aircraft.
“We believe unequivocally that Raúl Castro is responsible for this heinous crime,” lawmakers wrote. “It is time for him to be brought to justice.”
While no indictment against Castro has been announced, Florida’s attorney general said this week that he would open a state-level investigation into the crime.
The Trump administration has also accused Cuba of not cooperating with American counterterrorism efforts, adding it alongside North Korea and Iran to a select few nations the US considers state sponsors of terrorism.
The designation stems from Cuba’s harboring of US fugitives and its refusal to extradite several Colombian rebel leaders while they were engaged in peace talks with the South American nation.
