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MANILA: Australia’s defense minister and his Philippine counterpart are meeting in Manila on Friday for talks spotlighting their concern over Beijing’s actions in the South China Sea, where Filipino forces were on alert after China deployed a larger number of coast guard forces closer to Manila’s military ship outpost in a fiercely disputed atoll.
Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles is visiting while Australian forces engage in their largest combat exercises with the Philippine military, involving more than 3,600 military personnel in live-fire drills and battle maneuvers.
Marles has been invited to witness a mock amphibious beach assault by Australian and Filipino naval forces over the weekend in a western Philippine town facing the South China Sea, Philippine military officials said.
After their meeting, Marles and Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. will sign a joint statement of intent to further boost defense cooperation and affirm “their resolve to enhance interoperability, collective deterrence and long-term military readiness ... to promote regional security and stability,” according to Philippine defense officials.
The exercises called Alon, Tagalog for wave, will showcase Australia’s growing firepower. The drills will involve an Australian guided-missile navy destroyer, F/A-18 supersonic fighter jets, a C-130 troop and cargo aircraft, Javelin anti-tank weapons and special forces sniper weapons.
China has raised alarm over such combat exercises in or near the disputed waters, which it claims almost in its entirety, but where the United States and its treaty allies, Australia and the Philippines, have staged joint naval patrols and drills with other countries to boost deterrence against threats to freedom of navigation and overflight.
China’s military have separately confronted US, Australian and Philippine ships and aircraft in alarmingly close calls to assert what Beijing calls its sovereignty and sovereign rights in the strategic waterway, a key global trade route, sparking fear of a larger conflict that may involve American forces and their allies in what has long been regarded as an Asian flashpoint.
New faceoff at Second Thomas Shoal
The large combat drills between Australia and the Philippines, from Aug. 15-29, coincide with a new territorial faceoff between Chinese and Philippine forces in the Second Thomas Shoal. The Philippine navy deliberately grounded a warship in 1999 at the shoal to serve as its territorial outpost. China deployed ships keeping continuous watch at the shoal after Manila refused its demand to withdraw the BRP Sierra Madre.
The Philippine military said Thursday night that China has deployed several coast guard and suspected militia ships, along with a swarm of speedboats, some fitted with high-caliber machine guns and backed by a helicopter and a drone, closer to the grounded warship.
A Chinese boat came as close as 50 meters (164 feet) to the Sierra Madre, and two boatloads of Filipino forces were deployed from the ship to prevent the Chinese from coming closer.
Chinese officials did not immediately comment on the Philippine military statement.
A Philippine security official said the Chinese actions at Second Thomas shoal were being closely monitored by the US military through aerial surveillance.
The Philippine official did not elaborate and spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.
“This is concerning because of the surge in their actions and number,” Philippine navy spokesperson Rear Adm. Roy Trinidad said by telephone. “We have a contingency plan in case this escalates.”
“Amidst all these coercive and aggressive actions, the guidance from the commander in chief is very clear: We will not back down from any threat against our territory, sovereignty and sovereign rights,” Trinidad said without elaborating when asked how the Philippine military would respond.
One of the five Chinese coast guard ships at the scene used its water cannon without any target in an apparent drill, and smaller boats were seen dropping a net across an entrance to the shallows of the shoal where Philippine ships have passed in the past to deliver supplies to the Sierra Madre, Trinidad said.
“China coast guard vessels have been seen conducting maneuvers and drills involving the use of water cannons at sea while a number of smaller craft such as rigid-hulled inflatable boats and fast boats were also deployed inside the shoal,” the Philippine military said in a statement. “Some of the Chinese coast guard’s fast boats were also observed to have been upgraded with mounted weapons, including heavy crew-served weapons.”
The new face-off in the Second Thomas Shoal came after an accidental collision between Chinese ships Aug. 11 in another disputed fishing atoll, the Scarborough Shoal. The Chinese navy and coast guard ships that collided were trying to block a Philippine coast guard ship from sailing closer to the shoal.
The collision smashed the Chinese coast guard ship’s bow area and may have seriously injured or thrown overboard a number of Chinese personnel seen standing on the deck shortly before the crash, Philippine officials said, based on coast guard video. Chinese officials have refused to comment on the collision.
The Philippine coast guard ship, which narrowly missed being hit by the Chinese navy ship, offered by two-way radio to provide medical help but the Chinese coast guard did not respond, the Philippine coast guard said.