Vietnamese and Philippine troops yesterday played soccer and sang karaoke on a South China Sea island in a sign of the growing security ties between the two Southeast Asian nations most at odds with Beijing over the contested waterway.
Cooperation has blossomed between Hanoi and Manila since they shelved decades of enmity over their competing claims in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) to try to counter China.
Senior Philippine naval officials said soccer, volleyball and tug-of-war games were being played on the Philippine-held island of Northeast Cay (Beizih Reef, 北子礁).
A Vietnamese navy ship had earlier brought about 60 Vietnamese sailors to the island, where 100 Filipino troops were present, they said.
“We will have a good time together. These activities are helping raise the comfort level of troops in the disputed area and will strengthen relations between our two navies,” said a senior Philippine naval official who declined to be identified.
“It was a navy-to-navy confidence-building engagement,” said Vice Admiral Alexander Lopez, the Philippine military commander in the Spratlys region.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chun-ying (華春瑩) said that she was not aware of the activities, but that China’s consistent position was that “we are not going to disturb others”.
“But as for China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, our will and ability to defend it is there,” Hua said at a regular news briefing in Beijing.
Tensions have risen in the Spratlys in recent months as China has sought to assert its claim to the potentially energy-rich waters, warning Philippine and US military aircraft away from the reefs it is turning into islands.
Both Beijing and Washington have accused each other of stoking instability.
China claims most of the South China Sea, but Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei also have overlapping claims.
Philippine troops visited the Vietnamese-held island of Southwest Cay (Nanzih Reef, 南子礁) for similar games last year.
Since then, Vietnamese warships have visited Manila. A naval hotline has also been established, which has helped in the return of fishermen who get into trouble in the open sea.
Philippine military officials also recently said that both sides had informally discussed conducting joint naval patrols in the South China Sea.
A Vietnamese military official said the Philippines had raised the idea some time ago, but that nothing was fixed.
Diplomats and experts describe the nascent partnership as part of a web of evolving informal alliances across Asia that are being driven by fear of China.
“A Manila-Hanoi axis places a hurdle in China’s ambitions to control most of the South China Sea,” said Patrick Cronin, an expert on the region at the Center for a New American Security in Washington.
“This may not lead to immediate changes in the regional balance of power ... but it will shine a spotlight on how China’s assertive unilateralism threatens to undermine stability and prosperity,” he said.
Additional reporting by AFP
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not