By Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio, Reporter
THE Philippine Navy on Thursday said it monitored a Chinese aircraft carrier, six escort ships and a spy ship near the country’s northernmost islands on Tuesday, describing their passage as “unusual” and marking their closest recorded approach to Philippine shores.
The Philippines tracked a Shandong-class aircraft carrier alongside six destroyer and frigate escort ships and two support vessels near Batanes province, with the carrier ship being detected as close as 3 nautical miles (5.6 kilometers) southwest of Babuyan Islands, Philippine Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Roy Vincent T. Trinidad told reporters on the sidelines of a maritime security forum in Manila.
The vessels were last seen 180 nautical miles east of the northern Philippine province of Cagayan on Wednesday night, he added.
The navy also tracked a separate Type 815 Chinese surveillance ship that sailed about 33 nautical miles northwest of Dalupiri Island, also a part of Batanes province, navy spokesman John Percie Alcos told reporters at the identical event.
Naval forces based off northern Philippines deployed undisclosed naval assets to watch the ships and challenged their presence, he said.
“We expect lots of vessels to transit that individual area, especially off the coast of Babuyan Islands and Dalupiri Island because they’re a recognized maritime corridor,” he added.
It’s unclear if the Chinese vessel’s passage was a risk to national security as they passed by “expeditiously,” he said. “It’s inside our territorial waters, but we cannot say for certain in the event that they posed an actual threat.”
“While the conventional procedure is for a warship or foreign ship to answer, there are some instances after they don’t respond,” Mr. Trinidad said. “That is one particular instance where the Shandong carrier battle group didn’t provide any reply in the meanwhile it was challenged.”
The 305-meter Chinese aircraft carrier, which may carry 30 military aircraft, and the 130-meter spy ship sailed near the Philippine islands where upcoming Manila-Washington military drills are set to happen, wherein US mobile anti-ship missile systems will participate.
Philippine and US forces on Monday began their three-week, annual Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) exercise set to be staged near key locations facing regional flashpoints just like the South China Sea and Taiwan.
“With the Balikatan exercise ongoing, we also expect several key players to be there also to watch the exercise,” Mr. Alcos said.
The Chinese government on Monday criticized the joint military drills, saying advanced weaponry deployed by a “country outside the region” could jeopardize regional stability, alluding to the US.
The US military has brought a wide range of advanced weaponry for the drills to boost military preparedness and interoperability, including mobile anti-ship missile systems, portable artillery rocket systems and short-range air defense platforms, while making use of a mid-range capability missile battery that remained within the Philippines after last 12 months’s exercises.
SOUTH CHINA SEA CODE
On the sidelines of the identical forum, Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique A. Manalo said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China are “politically committed” to finalize by next 12 months a code of conduct for the South China Sea.
There still stays a must make clear the scope and nature of the proposed code of conduct, including the way it aligns with a 2002 declaration of principles, for the reason that issue stays a “contentious” matter within the region, he added.
“We’re all politically committed to achieving, having a code by next 12 months,” he told reporters. “We hope to have it, and we’ll do all that we are able to to attempt to achieve a successful negotiation.”
The Philippines is about to host the ASEAN summit next 12 months.
The Chinese Embassy in Manila didn’t immediately reply to a Viber message in search of comment.
ASEAN and Beijing pledged in 2002 to provide you with a code of conduct on the South China Sea, a framework that seeks to forestall conflict through diplomatic means but it surely has remained elusive because of slow progress.
The South China Sea has develop into a regional flashpoint as Beijing continues to claim sovereignty over almost your entire sea, seen as a significant global trade route that’s believed to be also wealthy in undersea gas and oil deposits.
Philippine and Chinese forces have repeatedly sparred over competing claims within the sea, with tensions flaring around disputed maritime features corresponding to the Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal.
Beijing has deployed an armada of coast guard vessels to guard what it considers its territory despite a 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling saying that its claim is unlawful.
Meanwhile, Mr. Manalo said the Department of Foreign Affairs is “constantly monitoring” the Filipinos accused of spying by the Chinese government.
“So far as I understand, they’re still under investigation,” he said. “But our officials there in China are closely watching and monitoring any developments.”
China’s Ministry of State Security apprehended three Filipinos accused of engaging in spying activities, with their arrests deemed as “in line with law,” Beijing’s Global Times reported early this month. They were accused of “intelligence-gathering” and conducting “covert intelligence missions” in mainland China.
“Our fellow countrymen usually are not spies,” Party-list Rep. Percival V. Cendaña said in an announcement in Filipino. “They’re innocent migrant employees.”
“It’s clear that China is retaliating for the arrest of their spies on our soil. They’ve stooped to a shameful ‘hostage diplomacy,’” he added.
Their arrest got here after Philippine authorities earlier this 12 months apprehended quite a lot of Chinese nationals accused of spying on joint Philippine-US military sites, the presidential palace and national headquarters of the country’s military and police.
Defense Secretary Gilberto C. Teodoro, Jr. on Wednesday said the Philippines neither has interest nor the capabilities to spy on mainland China, and is just focused on monitoring the South China Sea.
Mr. Cendaña said the Philippine government should issue a travel advisory and risk alert for Filipinos going to China and suspend its sister-city agreements with Chinese metropolises.
