MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Australia calls on the United States to not back out from its involvement in the Indo-Pacific region, as it remains concerned for the "pace and scale of China's activities" in the South China Sea, Australia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop said Friday.
"We see the US as the indispensable power throughout the Indo-Pacific…In Australia’s experience and observation, Asian countries appreciate this point, and remain deeply receptive to an ongoing US presence – indeed the appetite for working with the US is strengthening in many countries," Bishop said at the US-Australia Dialogue on Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific in California, as quoted by the Guardian newspaper.
A number of disputed islands, including the Paracel Islands and the Spratly Islands, are located in the South China Sea. Beijing’s territorial claims to the Spratly Islands, known as the Nansha Islands in China, which are believed to be rich in oil and gas reserves, run counter to those of the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam.
