P.L.A.VOWS TO BOOST WAR PREPARATION

Military wraps up drills in disputed waters that coincide with joint exercises between US and allies

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has wrapped up two days of naval and air drills in the disputed South China Sea that were held as the United States conducted joint exercises with the Philippines, Japan and Australia in the same area.

Senior Colonel Tian Junli, spokesman for the PLA’s Southern Theatre Command, said the drills on Sunday and Monday included fighter jet patrols, joint air and sea raids, and warships in cruising formation.

In a statement yesterday, Tian said that the command would “continuously strengthen military training and war preparation” and “safeguard national sovereignty and maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea”.

The PLA has not said where in the South China Sea the drills took place, but they coincided with Sunday’s joint exercises between the US and its allies.

According to the Philippine Army, navy vessels and aircraft were sent to “the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ)” in the West Philippine Sea – the name Manila uses for the part of the South China Sea that is within its EEZ.

Three Philippine warships – the BRP Gregorio del Pilar, BRP Antonio Luna and BRP Valentin Diaz – took part in the drills, alongside the American USS Mobile, Japan’s JS Akebono and Australia’s HMAS Warramunga.

They conducted a “communication exercise, division tactics or officer of the watch manoeuvre, and a photo exercise” to strengthen collaboration in naval combat, according to the Philippine Army statement on Sunday.

Japan’s embassy in Manila said that the joint exercises also included anti-submarine warfare training.

The Philippine Army said that it “demonstrated the participating countries’ commitment to strengthen regional and international cooperation in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific”.

It was the first full-scale joint exercises between the four countries and comes as hostilities have escalated between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea, where they have competing claims.

China claims sovereignty over most of the strategic waterway, but a 2016 ruling by an international tribunal – a case brought by Manila – dismissed nearly all of those claims. Beijing has rejected that ruling.

Chinese and Philippine vessels have had a number of run-ins near disputed reefs in the waterway in recent months, with Manila accusing Beijing of repeatedly obstructing its resupply missions for military personnel stationed on the rusting BRP Sierra Madre. Beijing said the Philippine vessels entered its territory illegally.

The Philippine Navy deliberately grounded the Sierra Madre, a World War II-era warship, on Second Thomas Shoal – known as Renai Jiao in China – in the Spratly Islands in the late 1990s to try to reinforce its claims to the area and stop China’s expansion.

In a recent confrontation, three Philippine Navy sailors were injured last month when the Chinese coastguard fired water cannons at a Philippine supply boat.

Manila accused the Chinese ships of conducting “dangerous” manoeuvres and blocking a civilian chartered resupply ship.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr is set to meet United States President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington tomorrow. The agenda will include planning for an agreement to improve trilateral interoperability and naval cooperation, according to Marcos.

[The command will] … safeguard national sovereignty and maintain peace SENIOR COLONEL TIAN JUNLI, P.L.A.