The People’s Liberation Army said on Friday that it had tracked and monitored a Dutch warship during its passage through the Taiwan Strait, days after using electronic interference during a confrontation with the same vessel in the South China Sea. The PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command said on social media that in less than two weeks, the shipborne helicopter of the Dutch frigate De Ruyter had “illegally intruded into the airspace over China’s Xisha [the Chinese name for the Paracel Islands] and...
Beijing’s strong opposition to maritime boundary talks between Manila and Tokyo reflects growing wariness over a shifting balance of power in the western Pacific. And, experts warn, these talks – part of a highly calculated geopolitical effort by US allies – could reinforce the so-called first island chain and restrict Beijing’s naval access in an area vital to any potential conflict over Taiwan: its clear red line. Tensions have sharpened since Japan and the Philippines announced last week that...
After years of watching China create land to back its expansive claims, others are doing the same.
The leaders of Vietnam and the Philippines upheld the importance of keeping the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea amid tensions in the strategic waterway where Beijing lays expansive claim. “As fellow claimant states, we reaffirm that maintaining peace, stability and the freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea remains non-negotiable,” Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr said. He spoke at a joint briefing with visiting Vietnamese leader To Lam after their...
Members of Asean might have conflicting claims in the South China Sea but mutual trust exists in the bloc, Philippine defence chief Gilberto Teodoro Jnr said on Sunday, singling out Beijing as the biggest obstacle to a code of conduct in the disputed waterway. Teodoro delivered strong words for China in the final panel of the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore, taking aim at Manila’s long-time maritime rival for disregarding an international arbitral tribunal which ruled in favour...
When Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr accepted the Asean gavel from Malaysian counterpart Anwar Ibrahim in Kuala Lumpur last October, the script was already written: a packed agenda, South China Sea diplomacy in the spotlight and a regional digital economy deal to clinch. Then the world changed. On February 28, US and Israeli forces struck Iran. The Strait of Hormuz, an artery of global shipping through which 98 per cent of the Philippines’ crude oil imports travel, became a war zone....
China has condemned the launch of maritime boundary negotiations between Japan and the Philippines, calling the talks “completely illegal and void”. The protest followed a joint statement released on Thursday after a summit between Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr in Tokyo. During the talks, the two sides agreed to elevate bilateral ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership to strengthen cooperation in areas including the economy, security...
Vietnam and the Philippines have overlapping claims in the South China Sea, but as Vietnamese President and Communist Party leader To Lam heads to Manila next week, analysts say the two neighbours are increasingly focused on what they can do together rather than what divides them. Lam’s two-day state visit on Sunday and Monday comes as both countries mark 50 years of diplomatic relations and a decade of strategic partnership, with Manila and Hanoi seeking to deepen cooperation on trade, food...
Oslo’s ban on a missile system for Malaysian warships may lead to further bottlenecks in the country’s crucial naval modernisation project due to a scramble for a replacement and hamper its capability to counter vessels encroaching on its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, according to analysts. The Malaysian navy has spent more than a decade waiting for its new littoral combat ships (LCS), a flagship upgrade meant to enhance its presence in the contested waters. A dispute over...
China’s military said on Wednesday that it had used measures including electronic interference to drive away a Dutch warship near the disputed Paracel Islands, and in a rare move accused the Dutch navy of triggering “miscalculation”. The People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Southern Theatre Command, which oversees the South China Sea, said in a post on its official WeChat account on Wednesday evening that the Dutch frigate De Ruyter had “illegally intruded into China’s Xisha Islands” and that its...
FMs pledge collaboration on energy security, maritime surveillance, domain awareness; Quad joint statement calls for freedom of navigation, adherence to international law in Hormuz, Red Sea, South China Sea
A rare visit by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr to Japan this week marks Manila’s latest bid to establish a counterweight to Beijing over the South China Sea dispute. During the four-day trip, the first state visit by a Philippine leader to Japan in over a decade, Marcos is expected to discuss boosting defence and other ties between Manila and Tokyo amid the security challenge posed by China’s growing maritime assertiveness, according to analysts. Marcos will meet Japanese Prime...
A US and Philippine-led military drill seen as targeting China grew this year into the largest yet, prompting Chinese experts to warn that the annual event will exacerbate regional instability amid heightened tensions in the Indo-Pacific. The decades-old drill called Balikatan, which means shoulder to shoulder, reached record highs in terms of scale, scope of participation and training complexity this year, according to a report published by the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing...
Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio has twice in recent weeks urged the country’s armed forces to defend its sovereignty, in a carefully calibrated attempt to sound more assertive on the South China Sea issue without directly challenging Beijing, according to analysts. While Duterte-Carpio did not name China, her repeated calls marked a tonal shift from her earlier approach, when she either avoided the issue or warned against letting it define Manila’s broader relationship with...
Chinese scientists landed on a disputed South China Sea reef over the weekend in the latest assertion of Beijing’s sovereignty claims. The uninhabited sandbank, Sandy Cay, has become a growing flashpoint following a series of encounters between Chinese and Philippine coastguard, military and fishing vessels. The Philippines said the Chinese-flagged research vessel Xiang Yang Hong 33 had been spotted near the reef on Saturday, escorted by two coastguard ships. Jay Tarriela, a spokesman for the...
A proposed airport on a former US naval base in the Philippines near the entrance to Manila Bay is drawing fresh strategic attention after Washington agreed to fund a feasibility study, a move analysts say fits into US efforts to strengthen logistics, access and interoperability with the country in the South China Sea. Experts said the proposed Sangley Point International Airport in Cavite could become more than a commercial aviation project because of its access to the South China Sea and the...
A proposal unveiled by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr for a new Southeast Asian maritime centre has raised questions about its most glaring obstacle: Manila’s long-standing South China Sea dispute with Beijing. Analysts warn such a centre would not only have to avoid appearance of being an instrument of Philippine interests in disputed waters, but also risks simply duplicating the work of existing regional bodies. Speaking on Friday at a press conference following the Asean summit in...
Vietnam has expanded its outposts in the South China Sea by hundreds of acres over the past year, according to a new report, as Hanoi and Beijing race to reinforce competing territorial claims through land reclamation. Vietnam has added about 534 acres (2.16 square km) of land in the Spratly Islands, bringing its total reclaimed area to roughly 2,771 acres (11.2 square km), according to the Washington-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative. While Hanoi had appeared to be narrowing the gap...
Deeper economic cooperation between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will hinge on whether a code can be laid down to govern maritime territory and activity in the South China Sea, Philippine leader Ferdinand Marcos Jnr has said. “We cannot institutionalise any of those things until the code of conduct is finalised,” he told a press conference on Friday at the close of the 48th Asean summit in Cebu, when asked about aspects that held the most potential in relations between...
Beijing and Manila have traded barbs over a Chinese research vessel near a disputed South China Sea reef, with each warning of further countermeasures, a sign of lingering tensions between the two rival claimants. In a statement issued on Thursday night, China Coast Guard (CCG) spokesman Jiang Lue said a Philippine Coast Guard Islander aircraft had “deliberately approached and harassed” China’s Xiang Yang Hong 33 scientific research vessel on Wednesday while the ship was conducting a “legitimate...