Vietnam and the Philippines yesterday agreed to boost cooperation between their coast guards and to prevent untoward incidents in the South China Sea, in an announcement during a state visit to Hanoi by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The two Southeast Asian nations have competing claims over some parts of the South China Sea, a conduit for US$3 trillion of annual ship-borne trade that China claims almost in its entirety.
The two memoranda of understanding on security covered “incident prevention in the South China Sea” and “maritime cooperation” among coast guards, said a Vietnamese official who announced the deals during a formal ceremony at the presidential palace.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The agreements in Hanoi could risk angering Beijing, especially if they pave the way for compromises on disputed claims. China tends to view progress in the resolution of border disputes among other claimants with skepticism.
Both Hanoi and Manila have had run-ins with China’s coast guard, but altercations have been frequent in the past year between the vessels of China and US ally the Philippines, adding strain to deteriorating relations.
The maritime cooperation deal aims to establish a comprehensive partnership between the two coast guards on capacity building, training, and personnel and ship exchanges to improve their ability to run operations together, according to Marcos’ remarks at a meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.
“The South China Sea remains a point of contention,” Marcos said at the meeting. “We are firm in defending our sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction against any provocations, but at the same time, we are also seeking to address these issues with China through peaceful dialogue and consultations as two equal sovereign states.”
Before meeting Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong, Marcos said Vietnam was “the sole strategic partner of the Philippines” in Southeast Asia, adding that maritime cooperation was the foundation of that relationship.
“The world and regional situation is evolving in a rapid and complicated manner, and therefore we need to unite and cooperate more closely,” Chinh said, adding that Marcos’ visit would help to boost bilateral relations.
Vietnam, one of the world’s biggest rice exporters, also sealed agreements with the Philippines, a top importer of the grain, covering rice trade and agriculture cooperation.
On his two-day visit to Hanoi, Marcos is meeting Vietnamese leaders, but not Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, according to official schedules, in what would be Trong’s third consecutive absence from meetings with visiting leaders this month.
Before meeting Vietnamese political leaders yesterday, Marcos met Pham Nhat Vuong, the head of Vingroup, Vietnam’s largest conglomerate, on Monday.
The company yesterday said that its electric vehicle unit VinFast would open a business network in the Philippines.
Marcos said the Philippines could help produce batteries for electric vehicles, thanks to its reserves of cobalt, copper and nickel, Vingroup said in a statement.
Marcos said the two nations are aiming to increase bilateral trade to US$10 billion from US$7 billion.
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS