US, China clash over South China Sea at UNSC meeting

Prime Minister Modi chaired the virtual high-level open debate on maritime security, one of the three signature events of India’s current Presidency of the powerful 15-nation UN body. The meeting was later chaired by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar as foreign ministers and UN envoys made their national statements. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke of ‘some of the critical areas where we see maritime rules and principles under threat.’ ‘In the South China Sea, we have seen dangerous encounters between vessels at sea and provocative actions to advance unlawful maritime claims,’ Blinken said, in a thinly-veiled attack on China which claims almost all of the 1.3 million square-mile South China Sea as its sovereign territory. 

China has been building military bases on artificial islands in the region also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. 

‘The United States has made clear its concerns regarding actions that intimidate and bully other states from lawfully accessing their maritime resources. And we and other countries including South China Sea claimants have protested such behavior and unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea,’ Blinken said. 

‘Some may assert that resolving the dispute in the South China Sea is not the business of the United States or any other country that is not a claimant to the islands and waters. ‘Conflict in the South China Sea or in any ocean would have serious global consequences for security and for commerce. What’s more, when a State faces no consequences for ignoring these rules, it fuels greater impunity and instability everywhere,” Blinken said. China’s Deputy Permanent Representative Dai Bing, speaking last in the meeting, said that he wishes to ‘point out that the Security Council is not the right place to discuss the issue of the South China Sea.