US hails India partnership

♦ Tillerson says China's actions in S China Sea challenge int'l law

♦ Calls for Pakistan to take decisive action against terror groups

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Wednesday for the US and India to expand strategic ties. He also pointedly criticised China, which he accused of challenging international norms needed for global stability.

Tillerson's remarks on relations between the world's two largest democracies, ahead of his first trip to South Asia as secretary of state, risked endearing Washington to one Asian power while alienating another.

Tillerson said the world needed the US and India to have a strong partnership. He said the two nations share goals of security, free navigation, free trade and fighting terrorism in the Indo-Pacific, and serve as "the eastern and western beacons" for an international rules-based order which is increasingly under strain.

Both India and China had benefited from that order, but Tillerson said India had done so while respecting rules and norms, while China had "at times" undermined them. To make his point, he alluded to China's island building and expansive territorial claims in seas where Beijing has long-running disputes with Southeast Asian neighbours, reported AP.

 "China's provocative actions in the South China Sea directly challenge the international law and norms that the United States and India both stand for," Tillerson said in an address at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

He also accused China of economic activities and financing that saddles developing countries in the region with enormous debt.

Beijing responded yesterday by saying that America was biased, reported AFP.

"We hope the US side can look at China's development and role in the international community in an objective way, and abandon its biased views of China," foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said during a regular press briefing.

"Based on the purposes and principles of the UN charter, we will firmly uphold multilateralism, yet we will also firmly safeguard our own rights and interests."

Tillerson said US and India were leading regional efforts on counterterrorism. He said they were "cross-screening" known and suspected terrorists, and later this year will convene a new dialogue on terrorist designations. In July, the US sanctioned Hizbul Mujahideen, a Pakistan-based rebel group that fights against Indian control in the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir.

Tillerson called Wednesday for Pakistan "to take decisive action against terrorist groups based within their own borders that threaten its own people and the broader region."