PH to join US, Japan, Aussie allies ahead of trilateral meet
The Philippines will hold joint naval drills with the United States, Japan, and Australia, two diplomatic sources told Agence France-Presse on Thursday, as the four countries deepen military ties to counter China’s expanding influence in the Asia-Pacific region.
The exercise will be held Sunday in the disputed South China Sea—which Beijing claims almost entirely—days before US President Joe Biden is due to hold the first trilateral summit with the leaders of the Philippines and Japan.
The diplomatic sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the drills have not yet been officially announced.
Earlier this week, the Australian warship HMAS Warramunga arrived at the island province of Palawan, which faces the hotly contested waters.
The Philippine military said the visit was “aimed at strengthening military relations with partner nations”.
Earlier, the Department of Foreign Affairs disclosed the negotiations were ongoing.
“I can confirm that negotiations are still ongoing. Nothing more,” Assistant Secretary Arvin de Leon, of the DFA’s Office of Public Affairs and Cultural Diplomacy, said.
The trilateral maritime activity may be mentioned in the joint statement of President Marcos, US President Joe Biden, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida when they meet on April 11 at the White House, reports said.
Mr. Marcos, Biden and Kishida will sit down to discuss trilateral cooperation to “further peace and security in the Indo-Pacific and around the world,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said.
Joint patrols between the US, Japanese and Philippine coast guards are expected to be announced during the summit, one of the diplomatic sources told AFP, after joint drills were held for the first time last year.
Meanwhile, talks between the Philippines and Japan for a defense pact that would allow the countries to deploy troops on each other’sterritory were “still ongoing”, the DFA’s de Leon told reporters Thursday.
Manila already has a similar agreement with Australia and the United States.
Various media outlets have reported that Japan plans to join the Philippines and the US in its “freedom of navigation” activities in the South China Sea.
The three countries have been active in calling out China for its aggressive actions in the area.
China has demanded that the Philippines should not seek help from other countries to intervene in the dispute and the issue should only be settled among the claimant countries.
Aside from the Philippines and China, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Malaysia are among those claiming parts of the area.
“For some time, the Philippines has been pulling non-regional actors into the South China Sea affairs to back Philippine provocations and violation of China’s sovereignty,” Wang Wenbin, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Wednesday.
The Chinese official called the Philippines’ seeking of support fromother like-minded nations as “selfish gains at the expense of the consensus reached by countries in the region.” The three countries have recently been active in its campaign to ensure freedom of navigation and in calling out China for its aggressive actions in the waters.
Meanwhile, China lashed back at Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro for accusing Beijing of laying down a propaganda trap regarding the West Philippine Sea issue.
In an open letter on Tuesday, Teodoro urged Filipinos not to fall intothe “trap set by Chinese propaganda of refocusing the debate on aso-called promise while deflecting attention away from China’s Government.”
“We Filipinos must not lose sight of the fact that the main threat to our rights in the WPS is the Chinese government[‘s] illegal activities,” he said.
China continues to reject the 2016 arbitral ruling rendered by the United Nations-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration that rejected its nine-dash line that covers much of the South China Sea.
“The Philippines keeps accusing China of ‘intimidating smaller countries’ without mentioning at all the Philippine occupation of and encroachment on China’s territory in Nansha Qundao. That is a real propaganda ‘trap,’” Wang lamented.
“On the issue of Ren’ai Jiao, it’s not the size, but the behavior of a country that determines who is right and who is wrong,” Wang said.
Wang recalled Manila’s supposed failure to comply with its promise to tow away the grounded Philippine military ship in the Ayungin Shoal, which has recently been causing tension between the two sides.
“But 25 years on, not only hasn’t the Philippines fulfilled its promise to tow away the warship, it has even attempted to send construction materials for large-scale repair and reinforcement of the warship in order to build permanent structures on Ren’ai Jiao,” Wang lamented.
National Security Council Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya said the Philippines remained committed to keep the grounded warship to assert its maritime claims to the area.
“Our commitment to maintaining BRP Sierra Madre will always be there.
Any attempt by China to interfere with the resupply missions will be met by the Philippines in a fashion that protects our troops, both those doing the RoRe missions and those that are in LS-57,” Malaya said during a maritime forum in Quezon City.
“We are also looking at diplomatic approaches. We hope the incidents in Ayungin Shoal will not happen again, but our resupply missions will never stop,” he added.
Meanwhile, Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez maintained that the Philippines “will not give up any of our territories.
“But we continue to reach out and tell them (China) that we are ready to sit down and talk seriously about how to resolve some of the issues involving the territorial claims,” he said. With AFP