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BEIJING (Reuters) – The U.S. poses the biggest safety problem within the South China Sea as its navy deployment there’s turning it into “the whirlpool of an arms race”, Chinese language Vice International Minister Solar Weidong mentioned in remarks revealed on Sunday.
Latest maritime run-ins between China and the Philippines, a U.S. treaty ally, have made the extremely strategic South China Sea a possible flashpoint between Washington and Beijing.
“At current, the most important safety problem within the South China Sea comes from outdoors the area,” Solar mentioned in feedback revealed by his ministry, after attending a high-level assembly on East Asian cooperation in Laos.
Solar mentioned U.S.-led forces have been “selling navy deployment and actions within the South China Sea, inciting and intensifying maritime disputes and contradictions, and damaging the official rights and pursuits of coastal nations”.
A transfer by the US to deploy medium-range missile programs within the space “is dragging the area into the whirlpool of an arms race, putting the complete Asia Pacific area beneath the shadow of geopolitical conflicts”, Solar mentioned.
China is dedicated to correctly managing disputes with the events within the South China Sea by way of dialogue, he added.
In April, the Philippines mentioned throughout a gathering with U.S. allies that it was decided to say its sovereign rights within the South China Sea, accusing China of escalating “its harassment” of the Philippines.
China claims virtually the complete South China Sea, a conduit for greater than $3 trillion in annual ship commerce, and has deployed a whole bunch of coast guard vessels so far as 1,000 km off its mainland to police what it says is its jurisdiction.
The Philippines and China have sparred repeatedly this previous yr close to disputed options that fall inside Manila’s unique financial zone. China routinely accuses the Philippines of encroachment whereas Manila and its allies have condemned what they name aggression by Beijing.
The USA has mentioned it stands with Manila.
(Reporting by Kevin Yao; enhancing by Mark Heinrich)
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