Top China, US Diplomats Begin Meeting In Laos

The top diplomats of China and the United States met for talks on Saturday in Laos, as Washington worries about Beijing's actions in the South China Sea and its deepening ties with Moscow.

The pair will meet for about an hour on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers meeting, US officials said, with China's foreign ministry saying they would "exchange views on issues of common concern".

Blinken's stop in Laos is part of a multi-nation Asia visit aimed at reinforcing regional ties in the face of an increasingly assertive Beijing.

Shortly before the meeting Blinken hit out at Beijing's "escalatory and unlawful actions" in the South China Sea, where China and the Philippines are locked in a territorial dispute.

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.

The clashes have fuelled fears of a conflict that could drag in the United States due to its mutual defence treaty with Manila.

On Saturday Manila said it had successfully resupplied troops on the Second Thomas Shoal -- the focus of clashes in recent months -- under a deal agreed with Beijing.

On Friday Wang called on the Philippines to "honour its commitments" under the deal rather than "backtracking or creating complications", warning Beijing would "respond resolutely" to any violation.

Philippine foreign secretary Enrique Manalo said the deal "was an important step forward in diffusing tensions and hopefully lead to other areas of cooperation on the South China Sea."

Blinken said the US welcomed the successful resupply mission.

Wang also warned the Philippines over a deploying a US medium-range missile system on its soil, saying it would "create tension and confrontation in the region and trigger an arms race."

The US Army said in April it had deployed the Mid-Range Capability missile system in the northern Philippines for annual joint military exercises.

Philippines military officials later said the system would be removed from the country.

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.

Blinken's stop in Laos is part of a multi-nation Asia visit aimed at reinforcing regional ties in the face of an increasingly assertive Beijing.

The top diplomat arrived in Laos 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 meeting.

On Thursday, Wang met Russia foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in Vientiane and 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.

ASEAN foreign ministers stressed the importance of "security, stability, safety, and freedom of navigation in and overflight above the South China Sea," they said in a joint communique issued on Saturday.

Some ministers had expressed concern over "serious incidents in the area... which have eroded trust and confidence, increased tensions," it said, without giving details.

The communique also expressed the bloc's "deep concern over the escalation of conflicts" in member-state Myanmar.

The country has been ravaged by violence since the military seized power in 2021, sparking renewed fighting with established ethnic minority armed groups and dozens of newer "People's Defence Forces".

ASEAN has spearheaded so far unsuccessful diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis, with a five-point peace plan agreed between the junta and the bloc now moribund.

The five-point consensus "remains our main reference to address the political crisis," the joint communique said.

Myanmar's junta has been banned from high-level ASEAN summits over its coup and crackdown on dissent, in which rights groups say it may have committed war crimes.

Two senior bureaucrats represented Myanmar at the Laos talks.

The military's readiness to re-engage with ASEAN diplomatically was a "sign of the junta's weakened position", a Southeast Asian diplomat told AFP earlier this week.