MANILA, Philippines – The United States on Monday renewed its warning that it will defend the Philippines in the event of an armed attack at gunpoint. 1951 treaty, After Chinese ships intercepted and collided with two Philippine ships off disputed shoals in the South China Sea.
Philippine diplomats summoned a Chinese embassy official in Manila on Monday to protest strongly in the aftermath. Sunday’s collisions off Second Thomas Shoal. Officials said there were no reports of casualties, but the clashes damaged a Philippine Coast Guard ship and a wooden-hulled supply boat manned by navy personnel.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. called an emergency meeting with the defense minister and other senior military and security officials to discuss the latest hostilities in the disputed waters. The Philippines and other countries neighboring China have resisted Beijing’s sweeping territorial claims over almost the entire South China Sea, and some, such as Manila, have sought US military support as incidents mount.
After the meeting, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro criticized China in a press conference for resorting to “brute force” which he said was endangering Filipino crew members and for distorting facts to hide its aggression.
“The Philippine government considers the recent aggression by China a flagrant violation of international law,” Teodoro said. He added: “China has no legal right or authority to conduct law enforcement operations in our territorial waters and in our exclusive economic zone.”
Teodoro said Marcos had ordered an investigation into the collisions on the high sea, but declined to reveal what steps the Philippine government would take.
“We take these incidents seriously at the highest levels of government,” he said, adding that the government called for a press conference to present accurate facts. “The Chinese government is deliberately withholding the truth,” the Defense Minister said.
The Philippines also plans to raise its concerns about dangerous maneuvers by Chinese ships in talks between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on a proposed non-aggression pact – a “code of conduct” – to prevent a major armed conflict in the South China Sea. . Beijing is hosting the three-day negotiations starting Monday, two Philippine officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because there is no authority to discuss details of the talks publicly.
Teodoro said it was “absolutely ridiculous” that China would host talks aimed at preventing major conflicts at sea when it had just committed “a blatant disregard for international law.”
The regional conflicts involving China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have long been considered a flashpoint in a delicate fault line in the rivalry between the United States and China.
About five Chinese Coast Guard ships, eight escort vessels and two Navy vessels formed a blockade on Sunday to prevent two Philippine Coast Guard ships and two boats from delivering food and other supplies to the Philippines. Filipino troops stationed at Second Thomas Shoal Philippine Coast Guard Commodore Jay Tarella said, aboard a stranded Navy ship.
During the encounter, a Philippine Coast Guard vessel and a supply boat were separately hit by a Chinese Coast Guard ship and a ship. Tarella said that only one of the two Filipino boats was able to deliver supplies to the Philippine forces.
The senior Chinese diplomat summoned by Philippine foreign officials repeated China’s assertion that Philippine ships had infiltrated Chinese territory.
“China once again urges the Philippines to take China’s grave concerns seriously, keep its promise, stop making provocations at sea, stop making dangerous moves, stop groundlessly attacking and slandering China, and illegally withdraw the ‘parked’ warship in As soon as possible”. The Chinese Embassy in Manila quoted Zhou Zhiyong as saying.
He was referring to the Sierra Madre, which serves as Manila’s territorial outpost in shallow waters after it was deliberately run aground in 1999.
The Chinese Coast Guard on Sunday blamed Filipino ships for causing the collisions and said the Filipinos were carrying construction materials to strengthen their position in the shallow waters.
The United States and other allies expressed concern about the Chinese action. Washington renewed a warning that it is obligated to defend the Philippines under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty if Philippine forces, ships and aircraft are subjected to armed attack, including “coast guard forces – anywhere in the South China Sea.”
The US State Department said in a statement: “The United States stands with our Filipino allies in confronting the dangerous and unlawful actions of the People’s Republic of China Coast Guard and maritime militia that are obstructing the October 22 Philippine resupply mission to Second Thomas Shoal.” Its embassy in Manila.
It blamed dangerous maneuvers by Chinese ships for the collisions and added that they “violated international law by willfully interfering with Philippine ships’ exercise of freedom of navigation on the high seas.”
The State Department also cited a 2016 arbitration ruling that invalidated China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea on historical grounds, including the Thomas Saul II case.
Washington does not claim sovereignty over the disputed sea, but has deployed forces to patrol the waters to promote freedom of navigation and overflight – moves that have angered Beijing, which has warned the United States to stop interfering in what it says is a purely Asian dispute.
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Maestrino reported from Beijing. Associated Press journalists Joel Calupitan and Aaron Favela contributed to this report.
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