SUMMIT RAISES CONCERN OVER BEIJING TRADE TIES
Marcos meeting with American and Japanese leaders amid rising tensions in disputed waters could lead to China resorting to action, analysts warn
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr will attend a trilateral summit in Washington tomorrow with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, a meeting that analysts say could push Beijing to reduce trade with Manila.
Observers have also speculated that the main reason behind the two-day summit is to strengthen maritime defensive efforts to counter China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the Asia-Pacific.
Hans Mohaiman Siriban, the Philippines’ acting foreign affairs deputy undersecretary for bilateral relations, said the summit was “not directed at any country” but aimed to deepen ties on economic cooperation, maritime security and climate change.
The summit comes on the heels of Chinese coastguard vessels and maritime military using water cannons on Philippine coastguard ships accompanying boats on a supply mission to Manila’s military outpost on the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea on March 23.
Jose Manuel Romualdez, the Philippines’ ambassador to the US, said in a press conference last Thursday that the summit would focus on advancing the three countries’ partnership by promoting trilateral growth and emerging technologies that will further enhance peace in the region.
Romualdez said topics to be discussed during the meeting would include defence and security cooperation, addressing emerging and traditional security threats in the maritime domain, economic and technological cooperation, and clean energy.
While Manila was unwilling to cede any territory, it was open to resolve its differences with China diplomatically, he added.
China has competing claims in the South China Sea not only with the Philippines but also Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam.
China uses the “nine-dash line” on maps to assert Beijing’s claims over some 90 per cent of the South China Sea, but The Hague tribunal ruled in 2016 that these claims had no legal basis and recognised the Philippines’ sovereign rights in the resourcerich waterway. Beijing has refused to accept the ruling.
In light of Manila’s efforts to strengthen cooperation with allies, China may suspend imports from the Philippines, according to Ramon Beleno III, head of the political science and history department at Ateneo De Davao University in Davao City.
“China might react if we strengthen our economic ties with Japan and the US. They might reject some of our export goods,” he said.
In 2012, China imposed tighter controls on banana imports from the Philippines after Manila took Beijing to the international court alleging that Chinese naval vessels had obstructed the Philippines’ entry to Scarborough Shoal.
Banana exports from the Philippines to China stood at US$406 million in 2022, according to data from Boston-based data visualisation site the Observatory of Economic Complexity.
On Sunday, Japan, the US, Australia and the Philippines conducted anti-submarine drills, warfare training and communication exercises in the South China Sea.
Marcos on Monday expressed hope for an end to Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea – Manila’s name for the parts of the South China Sea that fall within its exclusive economic zone – after the exercises, saying Philippine officials were continuing to talk to their Chinese counterparts to prevent tensions from escalating.
“We continue to talk at a ministerial level, at a sub-ministerial level, at a people-to-people level, so that there will be no collisions and water cannoning,” he said.
On the same day as the maritime drills, Beijing announced it would conduct similar exercises in the waterway.
On Monday, however, Philippine armed forces chief General Romeo Brawner Jnr said they had not yet encountered any Chinese “combat patrols”.
“While we were conducting our own exercises in the West Philippine Sea, we only monitored the presence of two PLA Navy ships and there were no combat patrols or exercises,” he said.
Later this month, the US and the Philippines plan to conduct their annual Balikatan military exercises involving some 11,000 American and 5,000 Filipino troops in the South China Sea.