THE trilateral summit in Washington, DC among the United States, the Philippines and Japan raises the bulletin board as the three are determined to conduct more naval training and exercises in what is seen as a potential flashpoint in the South China Sea.
This, as the Philippines, which has had maritime run-ins with China in the former’s 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone, is dead set on asserting its sovereign rights in the South China, particularly the West Philippine Sea.
The three allies, which recently conducted a joint patrol with Australia in the West Philippine Sea, are ready with the point and shoot method, controls to accurately and intentionally move their vessels in tight quarters.
The countries also plan to hold a maritime training activity around Japan in 2025.
Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo, who has accused China of “escalation of its harassment” of the Philippines, a treaty ally of the United States, underlined Manila’s determination “to assert our sovereign rights, especially within our exclusive economic zone.”
We share Manalo’s hope the White House meeting would allow Manila and Washington to better coordinate their responses on the diplomatic and defense as well as well as security fronts.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin himself said Washington stood with Manila against what he described as “coercion” as he underscored US commitment to its mutual defense treaty with the Philippines was “ironclad.”
“We’re working in lockstep … to strengthen interoperability between our forces, to expand our operational coordination and to stand up to coercion in the South China Sea,” Austin said.
His statement followed the introduction of a bipartisan bill by two prominent US senators to provide Manila with $2.5 billion over five years, funding needed to modernize the US ally’s long-neglected armed forces.
At the Pentagon later last week, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the developing US-Philippines alliance was not a response to any particular threat, but rather an evolution of the relationship to continue to defend international rules and law in the region.
China, which has been harassing Filipino vessels on humanitarian missions within the country’s exclusive economic zone, has been waving its mythical nine-dash line that takes in about 90 percent of the South China Sea to assert its claim to sovereignty over nearly all of the strategic waterway.
It has also deployed hundreds of coast guard vessels in patrols against rival claimants.
The United States, an ally for nearly 80 years, has a mutual defense treaty with the Philippines and has repeatedly made clear it would protect its ally if Manila’s coast guard or armed forces came under attack anywhere in the South China Sea.
Encounters have become more frequent in the past year as Beijing presses its claims and Manila continues its fishing and resupply activities for Philippine military personnel at two contested shoals which China claims are illegal intrusions.