President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that China and Russia increasingly challenge the established maritime principles, including freedom of navigation and trade
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th May, 2021) President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that China and Russia increasingly challenge the established maritime principles, including freedom of navigation and trade.
"For decades those rules [of maritime security and openness] supported global economic strength that benefited nations everywhere, and helped people around the world to develop their economic potential," Biden said in speech at the US Coast Guard academy's Commencement ceremony. "But increasingly, we are seeing those rules challenged both by the rapid advance of technology and the disruptive actions of nations like China and Russia, with whom I have had direct discussions of this with President Xi [Jinping] as well as President [Vladimir] Putin."
Biden noted that the long-standing basic maritime principles like freedom of navigation are bedrock of the global economic and global security.
The US president pointed out that international areas of trade and shipping should remain peaceful whether that is the South China Sea, Arabian Gulf and increasingly the Arctic while it is a vital interest of US foreign policy to secure unimpeded flow of the global commerce.
Biden emphasized that the United States has to play an active role in setting the rules of conduct based on democratic values and will continue to support the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas.
In 2020, the United States operationally challenged 28 different excessive maritime claims by 19 different nations, the Defense Department said in a recent report.
