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Japan, Philippines hold historic naval drills
Two Japanese destroyers and one of the Philippines’ newest warships began historic naval exercises in the flash point South China Sea on Tuesday, showcasing a deepening alliance aimed at countering a rising China.
The daylong war games, the first bilateral naval exercises between the former World War II foes, took place less than 300 km (185 miles) from a Philippine-claimed shoal now under Chinese control.
Japan’s cooperation follows a speech last year by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowing to help Southeast Asia maintain freedom of navigation and overflight in the region.
The exercise followed a pact in January between Japan and the Philippines, aimed at tightening security cooperation.
Philippine authorities insisted the exercises were merely focused on building military capabilities, but security analysts said they were clearly a signal to China over bitter maritime territorial disputes.
“First, they demonstrate that China’s Pacific neighbors are beginning to balance against China,” said professor Michael Tkacik, a foreign policy expert at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas.
“Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, and assorted other states are threatened by China’s behavior, even as far away as India,” he added. “Thus, the Philippines and Japan are jointly making an important statement about how seriously they view China’s actions.”
China has caused deep concern regionally in recent years as it has become more aggressive in staking its claims to the South China Sea and the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
Beijing insists it has sovereign rights to nearly all of the South China Sea. However, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have competing claims to parts of the sea, which is vital to the global shipping industry and is believed to contain huge deposits of fossil fuels.
In 2012, China took control of Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone and more than 650 km from the nearest major Chinese landmass. Chinese coast guard vessels have since guarded the shoal and denied Filipino fishermen access, triggering a series of protests from Manila.
Although the Philippine Navy had declined to say exactly where Tuesday’s exercises took place, it said the vessels sailed into the South China Sea from the former Subic Bay U.S. naval base, which is about 270 km southeast of Scarborough Shoal.
Two Japanese destroyers and a Philippine warship participated in a maritime safety exercise, practicing the drill for unplanned encounters, known as CUES, Philippine officials said.
A Philippine Navy spokesman said the exercises were the first bilateral war games between the two nations.
“It would be naive for anyone to think this is just an ordinary joint exercise in the light of some assertive actions by China in the South China Sea,” said Wilfrido Villacorta, at the Manila-based De La Salle University.
He described this as a “natural reaction” by the Philippines after recent “provocations.”
Villacorta cited in particular China’s recent flurry of reclamation activities on reefs in the Philippine-claimed Spratly island chain, turning them into islands capable of hosting significant military outposts.
Japan was trying to build constructive ties with traditional rival China, said security expert Narushige Michishita, of Tokyo’s National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
“But in a low-key, but understandable, manner it’s sending a message to the Chinese leadership that ‘Even if you use force to expand your sphere of influence, there is a limit to what you can do and the countries in the region are willing to stop it.’ ”
The latest joint exercise will likely be just one more step toward closer cooperation between the Philippines and Japan, said Julius Cesar Trajano, senior analyst at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
“Japan is trying to test the waters (to show) that it is willing to assist its partners in the region,” he said.
However, because of legal limits to the military aid it can extend, Trajano said Japanese aid will likely be in the form of training or to nonmilitary institutions like the coast guard.
Japan, Philippines hold historic naval drills | The Japan Times