By Simon Lewis
VIENTIANE (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Saturday at a regional summit in Laos, hours after he criticized Beijing’s “escalatory and unlawful actions” in the South China Sea.
Blinken and Wang shook hands and greeted each other in front of the cameras but made no comment before moving to closed-door talks in what will be their sixth meeting since June 23, when Blinken visited Beijing in a significant sign of improving strained relations between the world’s two largest economies.
Although Blinken criticized China for its actions against U.S. defense ally the Philippines in the South China Sea during a meeting with his Southeast Asian counterparts earlier Saturday, he also praised both countries for their diplomacy after Manila completed a resupply mission in an area also claimed by Beijing.
The presence of the troops has for years angered China, which has clashed repeatedly with the Philippines over Manila’s duties for a naval ship anchored at Second Thomas Island, causing regional concern about escalation.
This week, the two sides reached an agreement on how to carry out these tasks.
“We are pleased to note today’s successful resupply of Thomas II Reef, which is the result of an agreement reached between the Philippines and China,” Blinken told ASEAN foreign ministers.
“We welcome that and hope and expect to see it continue in the future.”
The situation in Gaza is “dangerous”
Blinken and Wang attended the security-focused Association of Southeast Asian Nations regional forum in Laos on Saturday alongside senior diplomats from major powers including Russia, India, Australia, Japan, the European Union, Britain and others, before heading to their meeting.
Blinken said earlier that the United States is “working intensively every day” to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and find a path to more sustainable peace and security.
His comments follow those of Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, who said the need for sustainable peace was urgent and that international law should apply to all. The comment by the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation was a veiled reference to recent rulings by two international courts on Israeli attacks on Gaza.
“We cannot continue to close our eyes to the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza,” she said.
More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting in Gaza since Israel began its incursion, according to Palestinian health authorities, who do not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
Israeli officials estimate that about 14,000 fighters from armed groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have been killed or captured, out of a force they estimated at more than 25,000 at the start of the war.
The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping about 250 others, according to Israeli statistics.
Also in Laos, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said guidelines for operating U.S. nuclear assets on the Korean Peninsula would certainly increase regional security concerns.
Lavrov said, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, that he had not been informed of the details of the plan, which is a concern for Russia.
“So far we cannot even get an explanation of what this means, but there is no doubt that it causes additional concern,” he was quoted as saying by Russia’s state news agency RIA.
“This is not sustainable.”
Ahead of the two summits scheduled for Saturday, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong urged Myanmar’s military rulers to take a different path and end the escalating civil war, urging the generals to stick to their pledge to follow a five-point peace plan endorsed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The conflict pits Myanmar’s well-equipped military against a loose alliance of ethnic minority rebel groups and an armed resistance movement that is gaining ground and testing the generals’ ability to govern.
The military gang has largely ignored peace efforts backed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the 10-nation bloc has reached a dead end with all sides refusing to engage in dialogue.
“We see the instability, the insecurity, the deaths and the pain that conflict causes,” Wong told reporters.
“My message from Australia to the regime is that this will not be sustainable for you or your people.”
An estimated 2.6 million people have been displaced by the fighting. The military council has been condemned for using excessive force in its air strikes on civilian areas and accused of committing atrocities, which the council has dismissed as Western disinformation.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) issued a statement on Saturday, two days after its top diplomats met, stressing that it was united behind its peace plan for Myanmar, saying it was confident in its special envoy’s determination to achieve a “comprehensive and lasting peaceful solution” to the conflict.
The organization condemned the violence against civilians and urged all parties in Myanmar to cease hostilities.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) welcomed the unspecified practical measures to reduce tension in the South China Sea and prevent accidents and miscalculations, while urging all stakeholders to refrain from actions that could complicate and escalate disputes.
The ministers described North Korea’s missile tests as worrying developments and urged peaceful solutions to the conflicts in Ukraine, as well as in Gaza, expressing concern about the dire humanitarian situation and “alarming human losses” there.