US urges Asean countries to be firm in countering China's actions

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday urged Southeast Asian nations to stand firm and strengthen their maritime forces to counter China's increasingly "destabilising" actions in the South China Sea.

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Speaking at a meeting in Malaysia with his counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), Hegseth took aim at Beijing over an increase in "destabilising actions" in the South China Sea and committed to support Asean countries with technology to help them respond jointly to Chinese threats.

On a second day in Kuala Lumpur packed with meetings that included multilateral talks with allies Australia, Japan and the Philippines, Hegseth proposed to Asean defence ministers the building of shared maritime domain awareness and said China had shown a lack of respect and threatened their territorial sovereignty.

"You live it on the threats we all face from China's aggression and course of actions in the South China Sea and elsewhere," he said.