VIENTIANE, Laos—Southeast Asian defense chiefs and representatives met in Laos on Wednesday for security talks at a time of increasing maritime disputes with China in the Asia-Pacific and as the transition to a new US president looms.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was set to join the meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations defense ministers in Vientiane, where many will be looking for assurances before President-elect Donald Trump’s return to power in January.
As China has been more assertively pushing its claims in recent years, Asean members and Beijing have been negotiating a code of conduct to govern behavior in the sea, but progress has been slow. At the meeting of Asean leaders last month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington was “very concerned about China’s increasingly dangerous and unlawful activities in the South China Sea which have injured people, harm vessels from Asean members and contradict commitments to peaceful resolutions of disputes.”
It is not yet clear how the incoming Trump administration will address the South China Sea situation.
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