US President Joe Biden said he was committed to “deepening maritime and security ties” with Japan and the Philippines, as he sought to assure allies worried about increasingly assertive Chinese actions in disputed waters.
“The United States’ defense commitments to Japan and to the Philippines are ironclad,” Biden said on Thursday before a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr at the White House, their first trilateral summit.
“Any attack on Philippine aircraft, vessels or armed forces in the South China Sea would invoke our mutual defense treaty,” Biden added.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The Philippines under Marcos has adopted a more assertive footing to the growing number of Chinese patrols in the South China Sea, where both nations have competing maritime claims. Tensions are centered around the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙), where Manila maintains a grounded World War-II era ship. Chinese vessels have used water cannons to block Philippine military missions that rotate and resupply troops on the ship.
Beijing yesterday responded that defense cooperation between nations should not target any specific country. Chinese Ministry of National Defense spokesman Colonel Wu Qian (吳謙) criticized a “certain non-regional country” for frequently sending military vessels and aircraft to the South China Sea, and gathering its allies to build “small cliques” against China.
“These acts are irresponsible and extremely dangerous,” he said.
Biden, Kishida and Marcos agreed to step up military exercises, including plans for Philippine and Japan Coast Guard members to patrol aboard a US Coast Guard vessel in the Indo-Pacific region, a joint statement released on Thursday evening said.
The nations also plan to conduct more training exercises at sea.
Maritime security topped the summit agenda following a series of incidents, including Chinese Coast Guard ships firing water cannons last month at a civilian Philippine boat. The three countries on Sunday joined Australia for military drills in the South China Sea.
“We steadfastly oppose the dangerous and coercive use of Coast Guard and maritime militia vessels in the South China Sea, as well as efforts to disrupt other countries’ offshore resource exploitation,” the three leaders said in the joint statement.
At the White House earlier, Kishida said that “as the world faces a complex crisis, it is important that we work in a multilayered effort with like-minded countries and allies to maintain and strengthen a free and open international order based on the rule of law.”
Biden and Kishida have striven to demonstrate unity with the Philippines, part of a broader US strategy to bolster partnerships in the Indo-Pacific and encourage allies to strengthen their own ties amid growing alarm over China’s military and economic influence.
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