US Flexes New Muscle in Asia

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SINGAPORE —
The United States flexed new muscle in Asia Thursday with pledges to counter China’s expansion in a contested sea and set up a second summit with the leader of North Korea, which Washington regards as a military threat to Western allies.

“We all agree that empire and aggression have no place in the Indo-Pacific,” U.S. Vice President Mike Pence told the U.S.-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Singapore.

U.S.-North Korea summit in 2019?

In a meeting after the summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Pence said U.S. President Donald Trump would meet reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for a second time after January 1. The pair met in June after more than a year of missile tests by the authoritarian government of Pyongyang and thunderous criticism from Washington.

“One thing President Moon did tell me that he believed, as President Trump believes, is that Chairman Kim wants to do something very significant here,” Pence told reporters in response to a question from VOA Thursday.

South China Sea dispute

Pence is attending the ASEAN 2018 Summit, an annual gathering by heads of state from 10 Southeast Asian countries. Members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam claim parts of the South China Sea – a waterway contested by Beijing, which has landfilled and militarized islets over the past decade.

Pence said Thursday he would discuss this week “steps” with Southeast Asian leaders to improve their “security.”

His comments on the South China Sea were likely aimed at reassuring Southeast Asian countries that it would keep Beijing in check, said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s public policy school. China has rattled other claimants by landfilling and militarizing some of the sea’s once uninhabited islands over the past decade.

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-flexes-new-muscle-in-asia-with-pledges-on-china-north-korea/4660199.html

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