Philippines holds sea drills with allies after South China Sea confrontation
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The Philippine Navy accused a Chinese coast guard ship on Dec 4 of sideswiping one of its resupply boats.
PHOTO: AFP
MANILA – The Philippines held maritime drills with the US and Japan inside its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, two days after a maritime confrontation with Beijing around a disputed shoal.
The drills – which brought together a US Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft, Philippine Navy frigate BRP Andres Bonifacio and a C-90 patrol plane and Japan’s Murasame-class destroyer JS Samidare – are the latest round of exercises between the Philippines and its allies in 2024 in the face of an increasingly assertive China.
The exercises were conducted “in a manner that is consistent with international law, and with due regard for the safety of navigation and the rights and interests of other states”, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the US Indo-Pacific Command said in separate statements.
On Dec 4, the Philippines accused Chinese coast guard vessels
Manila also expressed alarm over the presence at the shoal of a Chinese navy vessel that it said blocked and shadowed its coast guard ships, in what it described as a “steep escalation and provocation”.
China, which claims almost all of the South China Sea, including Scarborough Shoal, maintains that its actions are lawful.
Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam all claim parts of the sea.
Tensions have risen amid concern China’s expansive claims encroach on their exclusive economic zones (EEZs).
EEZs extend 370km from a country’s coast and allow it sovereign rights to explore and exploit the natural resources in the water and on the ocean floor.
China has rejected a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that its claims have no basis under international law.
Sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal has never been established, but the tribunal did rule that China’s blockade there violated international law and that the area was a traditional fishing ground used by fishermen of many nationalities.
REUTERS
