The Biden administration is working with the Philippines to develop “procedures and protocols on cooperative maritime law enforcement operations” in the South China Sea, the two governments have announced.

“We’re still hoping that we can include Australia and Japan, but it still has to be worked out by the [Philippine Department of National Defense],” Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez, the Philippines’s top envoy to the United States, told a state media outlet. “They’ve already talked about it. It’s just putting some flesh into it.”

Philippine and U.S. officials discussed the prospect in an annual bilateral strategic dialogue in Washington, D.C., just weeks after Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. traveled to the U.S. for a trilateral summit with President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. It also coincides with a major maritime military exercise involving U.S., Philippine, Australian, and French navies in a show of force to contest China’s claim to sovereignty over waterways that fall within the Philippines’s exclusive economic zone.

“We expect no problem, we see no confrontation, and at least we have an understanding regarding procedures,” Philippine military spokesman Ariel Coloma, a captain in the armed forces, told local press. “And of course, it’s part of our task to patrol our waters and give our partners the opportunity to exercise freedom of navigation. It’s in the law, and freedom of navigation is in international law, so we effectively exercise that through conduct of these activities at sea.”

Chinese officials have bristled at the military drills as an example of “forces from outside the region” trying to undermine China’s rights despite a Hague arbitral ruling that China has no legal basis for its expansive claims to sovereignty over most of the South China Sea.  

“We believe differences should be properly handled through dialogue and consultation among countries in the region,” Chinese defense ministry spokesman Wu Qian said Thursday, per the South China Morning Post. “We oppose external interference, muscle flexing, provocations, and harassment in the South China Sea, and oppose exclusive circles or bloc confrontation.”

That dispute was top of mind when U.S. and Philippine officials huddled up this week for the bilateral security dialogue. 

“The Philippines and the United States reiterated the importance of the security alliance and shared commitments under the Mutual Defense Treaty in an increasingly complex security environment,” they said in a joint statement Wednesday on the dialogue. “They committed to establishing a new framework for alliance communication and coordination, enhancing operational cooperation and interoperability in the maritime domain, including with likeminded partners, and accelerating capability development.”

The allies urged China “to cease its aggressive and dangerous actions … including its unlawful interference with the Philippines’ freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.” That language was an apparent reference to a series of recent confrontations involving Chinese Coast Guard and maritime militia vessels that have prevented Philippine ships from delivering supplies to a marine outpost in a disputed area.

The joint statement framed the potential “maritime law enforcement operations” as a means of “addressing illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.” That measure was unveiled just weeks after the Philippine government claimed that “Chinese fishermen use cyanide” in the Philippines’s exclusive economic zone. 

“They intentionally destroy Bajo de Masinloc to prevent Filipino fishing boats to fish in the area,” Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources spokesman Nazario Briguera said in February.

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Romualdez, the Philippine ambassador to the U.S., gave the prospective law enforcement measures an even wider framing. 

“Talks are still in the initial stages but Romualdez said the idea is to ‘stop any aggressive moves’ within the Philippine territory and the ‘exclusive economic zone,’ an apparent reference to the West Philippine Sea,” the Philippine News Agency said.