Indo-Pacific region at risk of being reshaped by geopolitical factors, says China

Warning that the Indo-Pacific region is at risk of being reshaped by geopolitical factors, China's foreign minister Wang Yi has asked Asian countries to avoid being used as "chess pieces" by major powers.

Highlighting that many countries in the region were under pressure to take sides, Yi said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should insulate it from geopolitical calculations.

With countries in the region now wary of being caught in the middle of US-China rivalry, Southeast Asia has long been an area of geopolitical friction between major powers given its strategic importance.

Some ASEAN countries are at loggerheads with China due to its claims to almost the entire South China Sea as its territory.

Amid intense Chinese diplomacy that has seen him make a string of stops across the region, Wang's speech comes just days after he attended a G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Bali.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held his first in-person talks since October with Wang on the sidelines of the G20 summit and uphold regionalism in the Asia-Pacific.

Both the US and China have been clashing over Beijing's repeated air missions over the Taiwan Strait.

While the US is required to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself under its US Taiwan Relations Act, China considers Taiwan its "sacred" territory.

(With inputs from agencies)

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