US Vice President Kamala Harris yesterday visited a Philippine island near waters claimed by Taiwan and China to show support for the longtime US ally and counter Beijing’s growing influence in the region.
Harris is the highest-ranking US official ever to visit the western island of Palawan, the closest Philippine landmass to the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) in the hotly contested South China Sea.
Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the entire sea and has ignored an international court ruling that its claims have no legal basis. Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam have overlapping claims to parts of it.
Photo: Reuters
Harris met with fishers in a coastal village and members of the Philippine Coast Guard.
In a speech, she said that “international rules and norms” must be upheld and the UN-backed tribunal decision rejecting China’s claims over the South China Sea respected.
“The United States — and the broader international community — have a profound stake in the future of this region,” Harris said, on board a Philippine Coast Guard vessel.
“As an ally, the United States stands with the Philippines in the face of intimidation and coercion in the South China Sea,” she said.
Harris’s trip to Palawan comes a day after she held talks with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos in Manila.
She reaffirmed the US’ “unwavering” commitment to defending the Philippines if its vessels or aircraft were attacked in the South China Sea.
Washington has a decades-old security alliance with the Philippines that includes a mutual defense treaty and a 2014 pact, known as the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), which allows for the US military to store defense equipment and supplies on five Philippine bases.
It also allows US troops to rotate through those military bases.
Harris’s visit conveyed a “stronger sense of commitment” to the Philippines’ position on maritime claims, but also underscored the need for the EDCA’s continued implementation, said Jay Batongbacal, director of the University of the Philippines’ Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea.
“The US cannot adequately carry out its obligations if it is forced to stay several thousand kilometers away in Japan or Guam,” he said.
Of all the claimants to the South China Sea, Beijing has in the past few years pressed its stance the most aggressively. Hundreds of Chinese coast guard and maritime militia vessels prowl the waters, swarming reefs, harassing and attacking fishing and other boats, and interfering in oil and gas exploration, as well as scientific research.
China’s Global Times yesterday accused Harris of “fanning the flames of the South China Sea issue” in an editorial.
“The Philippines has the right to receive any foreign visitor. What we want to emphasize is that any bilateral exchanges should not be at the expense of the interests of any third country as well as regional peace and stability,” it said.
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