A Vietnam Coast Guard ship arrived in Manila yesterday for a four-day goodwill visit and joint exercises as the two nations attempt to put aside their own territorial disputes in the face of rising tensions with China over control of key features in the South China Sea.
The Philippines and Vietnam are among the most vocal critics of China’s increasingly hostile actions in the disputed waters, a key global trade and security route.
The neighboring Southeast Asian nations themselves have overlapping claims in the busy sea passage, along with Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei, and the disputes are regarded as an Asian flashpoint and a delicate fault line in the US-China regional rivalry.
Photo: AFP
As the host’s coast guard personnel waved Philippine and Vietnamese flags, and a brass band played under the morning sun at Manila’s harbor, a Vietnam Coast Guard ship with 80 crew docked. Some of its officers saluted from the lower and upper decks of the 90m white ship.
While in Manila, the two coast guards are expected to hold talks and tour each other’s ships. They are to hold joint search-and-rescue drills along with fire and explosion contingency drills in Manila Bay, on the western coast of northern Philippines facing the South China Sea.
“This is a good template, a good way to de-escalate the situation,” Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Rear Admiral Armand Balilo said. “This shows that even rival claimants can have an opportunity to nurture a relationship.”
Colonel Hoang Quoc Dat, who headed the Vietnam Coast Guard’s delegation, said in a speech that the Manila port call was a way to strengthen the two nations’ “cooperative relationship for mutual benefit.”
“This will promote and enhance the efficiency of information sharing and the coordination in maritime law enforcement, in accordance with international law,” he said, adding that such friendly collaboration contributes to “the preservation and protection of the region’s maritime security and safety.”
In a separate goodwill engagement last month, Vietnamese and Philippine navy forces played volleyball, soccer and tug-of-war in the Vietnam-occupied Southwest Cay (Nanzih Reef, 南子礁) in the South China Sea’s hotly contested Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), according to Vietnamese and Philippine officials.
Vietnam in June said that it was ready to hold talks with the Philippines to settle their overlapping claims to the undersea continental shelf in the South China Sea, while China has long claimed much of the entire seaway and vowed to defend its territorial interests at all costs.
After a violent June 17 confrontation in the Philippine-occupied Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) between Chinese forces — armed with knives, an axe and improvised spears — and Philippine Navy personnel, China and the Philippines reached a temporary agreement last month to prevent further clashes that could spark a major armed conflict in the South China Sea.
A week after the deal was forged, Philippine government personnel transported food and other supplies to Manila’s territorial ship outpost at the shoal, which has been closely guarded by Chinese coast guard and navy ships, and no confrontations were reported.
However, the Philippines has vowed to press on with efforts to strengthen its territorial forces and defense, and expand security alliances with Asian and Western nations.
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