Marcos hopes drills will ease Chinese aggression

PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. expressed hope Monday that the country’s joint naval exercises with the United States, Japan, and Australia in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) would reduce Chinese aggression in the disputed waters.

Marcos issued the statement a day after five warships from the four countries held joint drills that officials said were a “show of unity.”

In an interview in Bacolod City, the President said the Philippine government will do all it can through diplomacy to convey to the Chinese leadership the need to lower the tension in the West Philippine Sea and avoid possible direct confrontation.

ALL IN A ROW A handout photo taken on Sunday, April 7, 2024, received from the Australian Department of Defense on April 8, shows the USS Mobile, JS Akebono, HMAS Warramunga and BRP Antonio Luna sailing in formation during a mutilateral maritime cooperative activity between Australia, the United States, Japan and the Philippines. AFP PHOTO 

“I sincerely hope so. I really do. We are trying everything. We still continue to talk at a ministerial level, at a sub-ministerial level, at a people-to-people level,” Marcos told reporters when asked if he thinks the multilateral exercises will reduce confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the WPS.

“Everything that needs to be done, we are doing, so that we speak with the Chinese leadership, Beijing, to talk with them so as not to heat up the situation and for us to talk properly so that there are no clashes, no… water cannons. We won’t return to that,” he added.

The joint maritime exercises over the weekend were shadowed by at least two Chinese vessels, the Department of National Defense said.

The President, however, seemed unfazed.

“That’s the usual reaction from the PLA (People’s Liberation Army). They will also deploy their own boats. So, it’s almost normal,” he said.

Marcos also said that the joint maritime exercises with the US, Australia and Japan were going well, and had been planned for a long time.

This handout photograph taken on April 7, 2024 and released by the Armed Forces of the shows the BRP Antonio Luna participating in the first Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity between the Philippines, US, Australia and Japan, in South China Sea. AFP PHOTO /ARMED FORCES OF THE PHILIPPINES 

This handout photograph taken on April 7, 2024 and released by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), shows three vessels HMAS Warramunga, USS Mobile and JS Akebono as seen from the BRP Antonio Luna, conducting the division tactics exercise or Officer of the Watch maneuver during the first Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity between the Philippines, US, Australia and Japan, in South China Sea. AFP PHOTO /Armed Forces of the Philippines

This handout photograph taken on April 7, 2024 and released by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), shows shows HMAS Warramunga, USS Mobile and JS Akebono maneuvering to form diamond formation during the first Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity between the Philippines, US, Australia and Japan, in South China Sea. AFP PHOTO /Armed Forces of the Philippines

In this handout photo taken and received on April 7, 2024 from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), shows participating ships displaying their station-keeping skills with precision as they maneuver into different formations as part of the Division Tactics / Officer of the Watch maneuver during the first Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity between the Philippines, US, Australia and Japan, in South China Sea. AFP PHOTO / Armed Forces of the Philippines

In this handout photo taken and received on April 7, 2024 from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), shows BRP Antonio Luna leading the three other participating ships in a column formation during the Division Tactics/Officer of the Watch maneuver exercise during the first Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity between the Philippines, US, Australia and Japan, in South China Sea. AFP PHOTO / Armed Forces of the Philippines

In this handout photo taken and received on April 7, 2024 from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), shows a Philippine Navy AW159 Wildcat helicopter pilot walking toward BRP Antonio Luna’s helideck to conduct his pre-flight inspection procedure on the helicopter during the first Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity between the Philippines, US, Australia and Japan, in South China Sea. AFP PHOTO / Armed Forces of the Philippines

“The interim reports that I am getting is that they are very useful in terms of the interoperability, so that each navy knows how the other navy operates,” he said.

The Philippine military said in a statement that the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the US Indo-Pacific Command, the Australian Defense Force and Japan Self-Defense Forces successfully conducted the first multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity (MCA) in the West Philippine Sea on Sunday.

The exercises took place days before US President Joe Biden was due to hold the first three-way summit with Marcos and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington D.C.

Top US officials have repeatedly declared the US’s “ironclad” commitment to defending the Philippines against an armed attack in the South China Sea – to the consternation of Beijing.

China claims sovereignty over nearly all of the South China Sea and has been increasingly assertive in the region in recent years.

A 2016 ruling by a court in The Hague constituted under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) said there was no legal basis for China’s claims, but Beijing has refused to recognize the ruling, despite its membership in Unclos.

AFP chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. on Monday said two PLA ships shadowed the joint drills from six nautical miles away.

The two PLA ships with bow numbers 162 and 792, a guided missile destroyer and a reconnaissance ship, were sighted off Busuanga, Palawan.

Brawner said Busuanga area is the route being used by Philippine naval vessels in navigating towards Sabina Shoal and Reed Bank, two unoccupied features in the WPS.

“While we are doing the exercise, we noticed the presence of two PLA ships in the distance,” Brawner said, but they did not attempt to block or prevent the exercises.

Beijing earlier said it would hold “combat patrols” in the area during the joint drills but offered no other details.

Defense information officer Director Arsenio Andolong said the two Chinese ships were no cause for alarm.

After the drills, the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) said it would “seize every opportunity” to strengthen its partnership with the Philippines, the United States, and Australia in ensuring regional peace and stability.

The MCA, which ran from April 5 to 7, aimed to enhance regional maritime security cooperation among the four countries, and promote freedom of navigation towards the realization of a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” the Japanese Embassy in Manila said.

In a joint statement with the defense heads of Australia, Philippines, and US, Japan’s Minister of Defense Kihara Minoru underscored the importance of cooperating with like-minded countries to ensure regional peace and stability.

Kihara also said that the issue concerning the SCS “is directly related to the peace and stability of the region and a legitimate concern of the international community and expressed Japan’s opposition towards any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force in the region.”

The statement was jointly issued on April 6 by Australian Minister of Defense Richard Marles, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., and US Defense Secretary Lloyd James Austin 3rd.

The defense chiefs said their countries “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight, and respect for maritime rights under international law, reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.”

Also on Monday, Sen. Francis Tolentino said the four-way naval drills would send a strong signal that the Philippines would not be bullied easily.

“I think it will signify a commitment to mutual defense and security cooperation among allies,” Tolentino said in a press briefing.

It would strengthen the Philippines’ defense and diplomatic ties with the US, Australia and Japan, he added.

“It will signal a strong deterrence [against any foreign aggression],” Tolentino said in Filipino and English.