U. S. warns it will defend ally if China breaks sea ruling

“We call again on the PRC to abide by its obligations under international law and cease its provocative behaviour,” U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, using the acronym of China's formal name.

U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken renewed a call to China to comply with a 2016 arbitration ruling that invalidated Beijing's vast claims in the South China Sea and warned that Washington is obligated to defend treaty ally Philippines if its forces, vessels or aircraft come under attack in the disputed waters.

Mr. Blinken's statement, issued by the U. S. Embassy in Manila on July 12, was released on the sixth anniversary of the 2016 decision by an arbitration tribunal set up in The Hague under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea after the Philippine government complained in 2013 against China's increasingly aggressive actions in the disputed sea.

China did not participate in the arbitration, rejected its ruling as a sham and continues to defy it, bringing it into territorial spats with the Philippines and other Southeast Asian claimant states in recent years.

“We call again on the PRC to abide by its obligations under international law and cease its provocative behaviour,” Mr. Blinken said, using the acronym of China's formal name.

“We also reaffirm that an armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft in the South China Sea would invoke U. S. mutual defence commitments” under the 1951 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty, Mr. Blinken said.

Aside from China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have had overlapping claims in the busy waterway, which is believed to be rich in undersea gas and oil deposits and where an estimated $5 trillion-worth of trade and goods are shipped through each year. The flashpoint region has become a key front of U.S.-China rivalry.

Washington lays no claim to the disputed waters but has deployed its Navy ships and Air Force jets to patrol the waterway for decades and says freedom of navigation and overflight in the disputed region is in the U.S. national interest. That has provoked angry reactions from China, which has accused the U.S. of meddling in a purely Asian dispute and warned it to stay away.