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US, Australia and Japan pledge ‘coordinated security assistance’ to PH

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‘NOT JUST SHOCKING BUT HORRIBLE’ A framed video footage released by the Philippine Coast Guard shows the ship, the BRP Bagacay, being hit by water cannons from Chinese Coast Guard ships near the Chinese-controlled Scarborough Shoal in the West Philippine Sea. The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources’ BRP Bankaw was also hit en route to the shoal. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

HONOLULU-De United States, Australia and Japan have agreed to provide “coordinated security assistance” to the Philippines to strengthen the country’s military capabilities in the face of China’s increasing aggressiveness in the South China Sea.

The defense ministers of the four countries – Gilberto Teodoro Jr. of the Philippines, Lloyd Austin III of the United States, Richard Marles of Australia and Minoru Kihara of Japan – met at the headquarters of the US Indo-Pacific Command at Camp HM Smith in Hawaii. How to maintain stability and security in the region will be discussed on Thursday.

Austin held separate meetings with his Japanese and Australian counterparts, and then all three together, before meeting Teodoro.

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“We want to conduct more maritime exercises and activities in our four countries. We also want to pursue coordinated security assistance to the Philippines, which will increase interoperability and help the Philippines achieve its defense modernization goals,” Austin said at a news conference.

Historic joint sail

The meeting came a few weeks after the navies of the four countries made their historic quadrilateral joint sail in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), part of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea, where China has far-reaching claims. . A 2016 arbitration award invalidated these sweeping claims, but Beijing has refused to recognize the decision.

The opening meeting of the four countries’ top defense officials took place on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore in June last year. At the time, Undersecretary Carlito Galvez Jr. represented the Philippines and Hamada Yasukazu Japan.

Marles said they discussed “an increased pace of defense exercises based on the mutual access agreements and status of forces agreements” between their countries.

Kihara said it was important to work together “while the security environment around us faces even tougher challenges.”

For his part, Teodoro said the meeting expressed a unified message “in the face of a unilateral statement by a single theater actor,” without mentioning China by name.

Tensions have risen between the Philippines and China over the West Philippine Sea. Earlier this week, Chinese Coast Guard vessels fired water cannons at Philippine Coast Guard and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources vessels near Bajo de Masinloc (Panatag or Scarborough Shoal), damaging both.

‘Irresponsible behavior’

Austin criticized China’s “irresponsible behavior” for “ignoring international law.”

But he and Teodoro declined to say how and when the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) between their countries might be invoked.

The 1951 MDT obliges the two countries to defend each other in the event of an external attack. Austin reiterated the United States’ “ironclad” commitment to the treaty. Providing security assistance to the Philippines is a top priority.

Teodoro said hypothetical talks about the MDT were “counterproductive.”

“It is an agreement and it will ultimately be a political decision,” he added.

Teodoro said that “our job as (defense) secretaries is to ensure that, through capacity building and deterrence, situations do not arise where an MDT situation would arise.”

‘Two anchors’

In Manila, Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo said Thursday that the government’s foreign policy in the South China Sea is “built on the twin anchors” of the 2016 arbitration award and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).

“We categorically reject the excessive claims and aggressive actions of the People’s Republic of China in the WPS, as they are in stark contrast to the rule of law and the principles that guarantee peace and stability in our region,” he said.

The arbitral award and the Unclos constitute the “foundation” on which the country has strengthened its maritime security cooperation with other countries, Manalo said, citing support from the United States, Australia, Japan, Britain, the Republic of Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia and other countries. India and the European Union.

“This reality, that we are not alone, is new. Not so long ago, we were ridiculed for filing protest note after protest note while our sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction were being violated. Now many others have joined our voices,” he said.

Manalo rejected China’s claim that the Philippines was merely a “pawn” of the United States in the South China Sea.

Observers say this propaganda theme has been repeated by Beijing and its supporters to diminish the legitimacy of Manila’s protests against Chinese activities in the West Philippine Sea by portraying the Philippines as a US “vassal.”

“The involvement in this maritime and territorial struggle of global importance is at the behest of the Philippines – we are not bystanders to the situation,” Manalo said in a speech at a national security workshop organized by the Presidential Communications Office.

Manipulative

In March, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning accused the US of using the Philippines as a “pawn to foment trouble in the South China Sea.”

“The Philippines should not leave itself at the mercy of the United States,” she said.

Manalo said such a statement was “intended to manipulate people into breaking away” from the maritime dispute with China..

“We must expose the illegality of the nine-dash line that is being used as a basis for threatening the livelihoods of our fishermen through intimidation and intimidation, and for land reclamation activities that degrade the environment in these vital waters. We should not allow ourselves to be portrayed as aggressors or transgressors,” he added. —WITH A REPORT BY JANE BAUTISTA






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