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India and the Philippines staged joint sail and naval exercises in the South China Sea for the first time — a high-profile military deployment likely to provoke Beijing, which lays claim to the contested waters.
Filipino armed forces chief of staff General Romeo Brawner said Monday that the exercises — which began on Sunday — had so far been successful.
When asked if Chinese forces carried out a response, Brawner said: “we did not experience any untoward incident but we were still shadowed. We expected that already.”
Chinese navy and coast guard ships have kept watch from a distance in past joint patrols with other foreign navies, the Philippine military claimed.
Beijing has separate territorial disputes with both India and the Philippines, and a long-standing regional rivalry with New Delhi.
It has laid claim to virtually the entire South China Sea, a key global trade route in the Western Pacific Ocean that borders the Southeast Asian mainland. Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also lay claims to parts of the waters, disputes over which have led to tense confrontations.
The Philippines has staged patrols with foreign navies such as the US, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and France in the past to push for freely navigating the waters and strengthen deterrence against China.
It has also allowed journalists to join territorial sea and aerial patrols to witness Beijing’s increasingly aggressive actions.
Last week, China’s Ministry of National Defence called the Philippines a “troublemaker” and said it strategically aligned itself with foreign powers to stir up trouble in what China claims are its territorial waters.
“China never wavers in its resolve and will to safeguard national territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests and will take resolute countermeasures against any provocations by the Philippine side,” Defence Ministry spokesperson Colonel Zhang Xiaogang told a news conference.
Brawner defended the joint drills with India by arguing that Manila needed to “partner with like-minded nations.”
“That’s what we’re doing with India,” he said, adding that the southeast Asian country “has to be strengthened through modernisation.”
The Philippines and India have a “shared commitment to maritime security, regional stability and a rules-based international order in one of the world’s most geopolitically sensitive regions.”
The drills come ahead of a five-day state visit by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos to India. Marcos and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are set to conduct talks to boost defence, trade, investment, agriculture, tourism and pharmaceuticals.
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