THE PHILIPPINES should leverage its ties with France and the United States to boost its naval capabilities and deter China’s aggression in the South China Sea, according to security analysts.
“The American and French navies are two of the biggest western naval powers in the world,” Chester B. Cabalza, founding president of Manila-based International Development and Security Cooperation, said in a Facebook Messenger chat.
“By leveraging them, The Philippine Navy can improve its naval and maritime deterrence against our squabble with China’s People’s Liberation Army-Navy,” he added.
Last week, the US and French navies held war games in the Philippine Sea to advance their interoperability “in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the US 7th Fleet said in a statement on Thursday.
Manila filed a diplomatic protest with Beijing last week after two Chinese aircraft dropped flares in the path of a Philippine Air Force plane conducting a routine patrol over the Scarborough Shoal on Aug. 8.
The two countries came to an arrangement last month after multiple standoffs at Second Thomas Shoal, where the Philippines grounded a World War-II era ship in 1999 to bolster its sea claim.
On the sidelines of a congressional hearing, Philippine Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Ma. Theresa P. Lazaro said the understanding with China did not compromise the country’s South China Sea position and the arrangement could be reviewed if needed.
“For the US and France to cooperate in naval drills in the Philippine Sea shows how China’s maritime aggression has succeeded in uniting its competitors against it,” Raymond M. Powell, a fellow at Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, said in an X message.
He said Manila should be cautious in making deals with China since it tends not to honor them and uses commitments merely as tactics in maintaining its expansive claim over the South Chian Sea.
The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately reply to Viber message seeking comment.
Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. has condemned the Chinese Air Force’s “unjustified, illegal and reckless” actions.
The Chinese side has said it “organized naval and air forces to lawfully” drive away the Philippine plane after repeated warnings, describing its operations as “professional, standard, legitimate and legal.”
In a statement last week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Beijing had lodged a diplomatic protest with Manila its ship “illegally anchored” at Sabina Shoal.
It sought the withdrawal of the Philippine Coast Guard vessel from Sabina Shoal, which China calls Xianbin Jiao, and to “stop its infringement activities” in the waterway.
“It is China encroaching on our exclusive economic zone, not the other way around,” Senate President Pro-Tempore Jose “Jinggoy” P. Estrada, Jr. said in a statement at the weekend.
“Their primary objective seems to be to establish full control of the shoal with their own Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) vessels and maritime militia, without any presence from us.”
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Portions of the waterway, where $3 trillion worth of trade passes yearly, are believed to be rich in oil and natural gas deposits, as well as fish stocks.
“The best resort is to take everything (China says) with a grain of salt and to verify events that happen on the ground,” Don McLain Gill, who teaches international relations at De La Salle University, said in a Facebook Messenger chat.
“The problem is China does not follow through on these agreements, confidence-building measures, as its words at the political level and actions on the ground are different,” he added. — John Victor D. Ordoñez
