Philippine and U.S. forces will practice "warfighting serials” in a multinational naval exercise scheduled to begin next week amid a flaring sovereignty dispute between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea.
“These naval activities are designed to further enhance the PN’s naval warfare capabilities, including the fundamentals of anti-submarine, anti-surface, anti-air and electronic warfare,” the state-owned Philippines News Agency emphasized.
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Philippine Armed Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Enrico Gil Ileto touted the “SAMASAMA” exercise as an opportunity “to further strengthen international defense cooperation and advance a rules-based international order.” His announcement coincided with the intensification of Philippine efforts to rebuff Chinese Communist claims to sovereignty over vast swathes of the South China Sea that fall within his country’s exclusive economic zone.
“We are not stirring up trouble. We were not the ones who took over the area. That's what they do not understand,” Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto "Gibo" Teodoro Jr. said Wednesday, per the Manila Times. “If it triggers something from China, it is just proving that it really has total disregard for maritime safety.”
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered the removal this week of a “floating barrier” that China placed at the Scarborough Shoal, where Chinese Coast Guard vessels have occupied a lagoon prized by regional fishers since 2012.
“This so-called action by the Philippine side is purely a farce for its own amazement,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Wednesday.
The dispute has ramifications that far exceed the lagoon’s value as a fishery, as Manila is resisting a Chinese claim to sovereignty that would cover most of the South China Sea, a major maritime corridor for international trade and the military balance of power in the Indo-Pacific.
“There have been a number of reports about destabilizing behavior directed towards the Philippines in the South China Sea and we’re very concerned about that,” Australian envoy Moya Collett, currently the senior Australian diplomat in Manila, said Wednesday. “We want all activities in the South China Sea and throughout the world to be consistent with international law and [United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea] in particular.”
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Australia will participate in the SAMASAMA naval drills, in addition to Japan, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
“Further, the French Navy (FN) and RAN will send personnel to join the [subject matter expert exchanges] while the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) and Indonesian Navy (IN) will field observers,” Manila Bulletin added.