ABOARD BRP CABRA, Philippines: US, Japanese and Philippine coast guard ships staged law enforcement drills in waters near the disputed South China Sea on Tuesday as Washington presses efforts to reinforce alliances in Asia amid an increasingly tense rivalry with China.
\nThe drills, witnessed by journalists onboard a Philippine coast guard patrol boat, the BRP Cabra, included a scenario involving the interdiction and boarding of a vessel suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction off the Bataan Peninsula, Philippine coast guard spokesperson Commodore Armand Balilo said.
\nThe US Coast Guard is deploying one of its most advanced cutters, the 127-meter Stratton, in the June 1-7 exercises hosted by the Philippines, Washington\u2019s oldest treaty ally in Asia. The Stratton has been conducting exercises in the region to share expertise in search and rescue and law enforcement, the US Coast Guard said.
\n\u201cThis first trilateral engagement between the coast guards of these nations will provide invaluable opportunities to strengthen global maritime governance though professional exchanges and combined operations,\u201d the Stratton\u2019s commanding officer, Capt. Brian Krautler, said at the start of the exercises. \u201cTogether we\u2019ll demonstrate professional, rules-based standards of maritime operations with our steadfast partners to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific.\u201d
\nJapan deployed a large coast guard ship, the Akitsushima, while four Philippine coast guard vessels joined the exercises.
\nThe Biden administration has been strengthening an arc of military alliances in the Indo-Pacific to better counter China, including in the South China Sea and in any future confrontation over Taiwan, the self-governing island which Beijing regards as a Chinese province.
\nWashington lays no claims to the strategic South China Sea, where China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysian, Taiwan and Brunei have been locked in tense territorial stand-offs for decades. But the US says freedom of navigation and overflight and the peaceful resolution of disputes in the busy waterway are in its national interest.
\nPhilippine officials say such joint exercises with US forces do not target any country. But China has warned that increased US security deployments in Asia target Beijing\u2019s interests and undermine regional stability.
\nThe US Pacific Command said over the weekend that a US guided-missile destroyer and a Canadian frigate were intercepted by a Chinese warship in the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese vessel overtook the American ship and veered across its bow at a distance of about 140 meters in an \u201cunsafe manner,\u201d it said.
\nLast month, the US Indo-Pacific Command said a Chinese J-16 fighter aircraft flew directly in front of a US Air Force RC-135 plane in an \u201can unnecessarily aggressive maneuver\u201d while the American reconnaissance plane \u201cwas conducting safe and routine operations over the South China Sea in international airspace, in accordance with international law.\u201d
\nIn April, Japan adopted a new five-year ocean policy that calls for stronger maritime security, including bolstering its coast guard\u2019s capability and cooperation with the military. It cited a list of threats, including repeated intrusions by Chinese coast guard ships into Japanese territorial waters.
\nThe Philippine coast guard, meanwhile, has intensified patrols in the South China Sea and taken extra efforts to document and publicize assertive Chinese behavior in the waterway following a Feb. 6 incident in which a Chinese coast guard ship aimed a military-grade laser that briefly blinded some crew members on a Philippine patrol boat off a disputed reef.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ABOARD BRP CABRA, Philippines: US, Japanese and Philippine coast guard ships staged law enforcement drills in waters near the disputed South China Sea on Tuesday as Washington presses efforts to reinforce alliances in Asia amid an increasingly tense rivalry with China. The drills, witnessed by journalists onboard a Philippine coast guard patrol boat, the BRP […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335843,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-335831","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n