By Nandita Bose (Reuters)– UNITED STATE Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday implicated Beijing of threat and also scare tactics to back illegal insurance claims in the South China Sea, her most sharp discuss China throughout a see to Southeast Asia which she claimed was important to united state safety.

Harris’s seven-day journey to Singapore and also Vietnam, just her 2nd venture globally, is targeted at withstanding China’s expanding safety and also financial impact, resolving worries regarding Beijing’s insurance claims to questioned components of the South China Sea and also revealing Washington can blaze a trail.

In a speech in Singapore, Harris outlined the united state vision for the area improved civils rights and also a policies based worldwide order and also looked for to strengthen Washington’s pivot in the direction of Asia.

She claimed the United States had actually placed itself onward to organize a 2023 conference of the 21-member Asia-Pacific profession team APEC, that includes the United States, China and also Russia.

Diverting focus and also sources to the area has actually come to be a focal point of President Joe Biden’s management, as it averts from old safety fixations with the withdrawal of united state pressures from Afghanistan.

The united state management has actually called competition with China “the biggest geopolitical test” of the century and also Southeast Asia has actually seen a collection of top-level gos to by leading management authorities, consisting of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

“We know that Beijing continues to coerce, to intimidate and to make claims to the vast majority of the South China Sea,” Harris claimed in her speech.

“These unlawful claims have been rejected by the 2016 arbitral tribunal decision, and Beijing’s actions continue to undermine the rules-based order and threaten the sovereignty of nations,” she claimed, describing a global tribunal’s judgment over China’s insurance claims in The Hague.

China denied the judgment and also has actually waited its insurance claim to the majority of the waters within a supposed Nine Dash Line on its maps, components of which Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and also Vietnam additionally insurance claim.

China has actually developed armed forces stations on fabricated islands in the waters, which are gone across by important delivery lanes as well as additionally consist of gas areas and also abundant angling premises.

The UNITED STATE Navy on a regular basis carries out “freedom of navigation” procedures with the contested waters, which China challenge, claiming they do not assist advertise tranquility or security.

On board the USS Tulsa, a united state fight ship at the Changi Naval base in Singapore on Monday, Harris informed united state seafarers “a big part of the history of the 21st century will be written about this very region” and also their job protecting it was critical.

On Monday, Harris started her journey by conference Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

They discussed the importance of freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific area, broadened cybersecurity collaboration and also initiatives to support important supply chains in between their nations.

“Our partnerships in Singapore, in Southeast Asia and throughout the Indo-Pacific are a top priority for the United States,” Harris claimed on Tuesday, including the area was “critically important to our nation’s security and prosperity.”

A leading Chinese mediator last month implicated the United States of developing an “imaginary enemy” to draw away focus from residential issues and also to subdue China.

Part of her job throughout the journey will certainly be persuading leaders in the area that the united state dedication to Southeast Asia is solid and also not an alongside Afghanistan.

Biden has actually run the gauntlet over his handling of the withdrawal of united state pressures and also the disorderly emptying after the lightning requisition of Afghanistan by the Taliban.

Harris opened her speech on Tuesday speaking about Afghanistan and also claimed the United States was “laser focused” on the job of “safely evacuating American citizens, international partners, Afghans who worked side by side with us, and other Afghans at risk.”

After her speech, Harris held a roundtable conversation with magnate on supply chain concerns. Later, she prepared to take a trip to Vietnam, where she willll meet leading authoritiesWednesday

(Reporting by Nandita Bose, Aradhana Aravindan and also Chen Lin in Singapore; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Michael Perry, Robert Birsel, Reuters)