The nuclear-powered U.S. carrier George Washington arrived off the Philippine capital on Thursday for a port visit, as the two allies increase defense cooperation aimed at contesting China’s sweeping claims in the South China Sea.
The Nimitz-class vessel’s port call came the same day that China’s first domestically produced aircraft carrier, the Shandong, sailed into Hong Kong.
Beijing claims almost the entirety of the South China Sea, through which more than 60 percent of global maritime trade passes, despite an international ruling that its assertion has no merit.
“The U.S. Navy, along with our allies and partners, is committed to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the ship’s spokesman, Lieutenant Commander Mark Langford, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) by email, without offering further details about the visit.
“These operations demonstrate the commitment to stability in the region, a commitment we uphold throughout the year and regardless of current events,” Langford said, calling the Philippines a “long-standing and critical ally.”
Manila and Washington have deepened their cooperation since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office in 2022 and began pushing back on Beijing’s South China Sea claims.
Bound by a 1951 mutual defense treaty, the two allies conduct frequent maritime exercises in the South China Sea. In May, the Philippine and U.S. coast guards conducted their first-ever joint military drills in the archipelago nation’s coastal waters.
The Shandong, which sailed off the northern Philippines in April, arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday after concluding combat drills in the western Pacific alongside the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning.
The U.S. Department of Defense said in a December report that China numerically has the largest navy in the world, with a battle force of more than 370 ships and submarines.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Thursday welcomed the statement released by the Quad Foreign Ministers earlier this week expressing “serious concern” over the South China Sea situation.
“By highlighting the continuing dangerous and provocative actions, and the use of force and coercion in the South China Sea, the Quad Foreign Ministers have kept focus on the incidents that the Philippines has regularly contended with in the West Philippine Sea,” the DFA said in its statement.
According to the DFA, the Quad demonstrated the international community’s strong objection to such “illegal, coercive, aggressive, and deceptive actions” in the West Philippine Sea and the South China Sea.
“We highly appreciate the Quad Foreign Ministers’ unequivocal support for the final and valid 2016 South China Sea Arbitral Award, further cementing its status as an unassailable part of the corpus of international law,” the DFA wrote.
“It also underscores the need for firm adherence to international law, particularly the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which remains the legal framework within which all activities in the oceans and seas must be carried out,” it added.
The department likewise welcomed the Quad’s commitment to build capacities across the Indo-Pacific region, specifically in maritime and transnational security, economic prosperity and security, critical and emerging technology, and support for humanitarian assistance and emergency response.
The Quad is a diplomatic partnership between Australia, India, Japan, and the United States focused on delivering outcomes for the Indo-Pacific.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline: “US aircraft carrier makes Philippines port call”