Australia has rejected Beijing’s territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea in a formal statement to the United Nations, aligning itself more closely with the United States in the growing row.
In a statement released Thursday, Australia said there was “no legal basis” for several disputed Chinese claims at sea, including those related to building artificial islands on small banks and reefs.
“Australia rejects China’s claim of ‘historical rights’ or ‘maritime rights and interests’ established in the ‘long course of historical practice’ in the South China Sea,” the statement read.
“There is no legal basis for China to draw straight baselines connecting the outermost points of maritime features or ‘island groups’ in the South China Sea, including around the ‘Four Sha’ or ‘continental’ archipelagos. ‘or’ peripherals’ “.
The statement comes after the Secretary of State of the United States, Mike Pompeo, declared illegal the search for territory and resources in the South China Sea by Beijing, explicitly supporting the territorial claims of the countries of Southeast Asia against China.
Beijing claims that almost the entire South China Sea is based on a so-called nine-stroke line, a vague demarcation of maps dating back to the 1940s.
The latest escalation comes ahead of the annual talks between Australia and the US, with ministers traveling to Washington, DC for the first time since Australian borders were closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The meetings come at a “critical time” and it is essential that they be held face to face, Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Defense Minister Linda Reynolds said Saturday.
United States’ relations with China have deteriorated markedly in recent months, especially over trade disputes, the coronavirus pandemic, and Beijing’s crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong.
On Friday, Beijing ordered the US consulate in Chengdu to shut down in retaliation for the closure of its Houston mission over accusations of being a hub for intellectual property theft.
Payne and Reynolds also wrote an article in The Australian newspaper on Saturday, calling the national security legislation imposed on Hong Kong last month “broad and vague.”
“We are facing a public health crisis, economic turmoil and resurgent authoritarian regimes that use coercion in an attempt to gain power and influence at the expense of our freedoms and sovereignty,” they wrote.
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