China is the "biggest disruptor" of peace in Southeast Asia, Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro said today, as tensions between Manila and Beijing over disputed reefs and waters in the South China Sea escalate.
Teodoro made the remarks at a conference of the US Indo-Pacific Command after repeated confrontations between Philippine and Chinese vessels in the waterway over the past 12 months.
Beijing claims almost the entirety of the sea, brushing aside rival claims by other countries, including Taiwan and the Philippines, and an international ruling that its stance has no legal basis.
Photo: AP
China's claims include reefs and waters inside the Philippines' Exclusive Economic Zone, which extends about 370km from the country's coastal waters.
"China ... is the biggest disruptor of international peace in the ASEAN region," Teodoro said.
Speaking to reporters, Teodoro urged other countries to call out China's "illegal acts" until it yields to pressure to stop its actions.
"We need a collective consensus and a strong call out against China," said Teodoro. "We are struggling against a more powerful adversary."
His comments come a day after China said it took "control measures" against two Philippine Coast Guard ships that had entered waters near Sabina Shoal (Xianbin, 仙賓礁) in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島).
The Philippine Coast Guard had sent two vessels to deliver provisions to one of its ships at the reef.
They were forced to abandon the mission due to China's "excessive" deployment of ships and rough sea conditions, Commodore Jay Tarriela, a spokesman for Manila's coast guard, said yesterday.
Several confrontations have taken place in recent days around Sabina Shoal, located 140km west of the Philippine island of Palawan and about 1,200km from Hainan Island, China's nearest major landmass.
Both sides have stationed coast guard vessels at the shoal in recent months. Manila fears Beijing is about to build an artificial island.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
RSS