Joint patrols with US underway in South China Sea, says Marcos
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JOINT maritime and air patrols in the South China Sea between the Philippines and the United States military were launched on Tuesday (Nov 21), Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said, describing it as a “significant initiative”.
His announcement comes amid a rapid strengthening of ties this year between the two defence treaty allies, including a decision to almost double the number of Philippine bases accessible to the US military.
“This significant initiative is a testament to our commitment to bolster the interoperability of our military forces in conducting maritime and air patrols,” Marcos said on social media platform X.
The announcement comes a day after he told a forum in Hawaii that the situation in the South China Sea had become more “dire than it was before”, and noted that the Chinese military had inched closer to the Philippine coastline.
The patrols will be carried out off the Philippines’ northern-most island, Colonel Eugene Henry Cabusao of the northern Luzon command said on Tuesday. The island lies about 100 km off Taiwan.
China claims most of the South China Sea through a “nine-dash line” that stretches as far as 1,500 km south of its mainland, cutting into the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of rival claimants such as Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
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Marcos has rekindled Manila’s ties with Washington after its testy relationship with a predecessor who had pivoted closer to China, despite Beijing developing military installations on man-made islands within the Philippines’ EEZ.
Relations with China have soured, with repeated standoffs between Chinese and Filipino vessels in waters claimed by both countries, prompting heated rhetoric between them and concerns of an escalation. REUTERS
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