UPDATE 1-U.S. to back nations that say China violated their South China Sea claims

(Adds background on dispute, Vietnam reaction)
By Arshad Mohammed and Humeyra Pamuk
WASHINGTON, July 15 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo said on Wednesday the United States will support
countries that believe China has violated their maritime claims
in the South China Sea but suggested it would do so through
diplomatic rather than military means.
"We will support countries all across the world who
recognize that China has violated their legal territorial claims
as well – or maritime claims as well," Pompeo told reporters.
"We will go provide them the assistance we can, whether
that's in multilateral bodies, whether that's in ASEAN, whether
that's through legal responses, we will use all the tools we
can," he said at a news conference, referring to the 10-member
Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The United States on Monday rejected China's claims to
offshore resources in most of the South China Sea, drawing
criticism from China which said the U.S. position raised tension
in the region, highlighting an increasingly testy relationship.
Monday's statement reflected the first time the United
States had taken the position that China's claims to the South
China sea were "completely unlawful."
The United States has long opposed China's expansive
territorial claims on the South China Sea, sending warships
regularly through the strategic waterway to demonstrate freedom
of navigation there. Monday's comments reflect a harsher tone.
China claims 90% of the potentially energy-rich South China
Sea, but Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam
also lay claim to parts of it.
On Wednesday, Vietnam's foreign ministry spokeswoman, Le Thi
Thu Hang, said in response to the hardened U.S. rhetoric on the
region that Vietnam welcomed any views on the South China Sea
that were in accordance with international law.
"Peace, stability, cooperation and development in the South
China Sea are the common aspirations and goals of countries in
the region and the international community."