Trilateral summit ‘not a threat’ to Beijing’
But China says target of the meeting between the US, Philippines and Japan is ‘all too clear’
China has “no reason” to view the first-ever trilateral summit between the US, Japan and the Philippines as a threat, a top White House official said.
“These meetings were not about any one other nation. This was about deepening and revitalising existing alliances and partnerships and strengthening some new ones,” said John Kirby, US national security spokesman.
Describing the expansion of defence and economic engagements between the three allies merely as an exercise to explore “mutual opportunities” in the Indo-Pacific region, he added that “there’s no reason for the PRC to look at this as any kind of a threat”.
Washington has worked to create a network of allies with security blocs and mutual defence agreements to offset what it calls a growing threat from Beijing in the South China Sea, East China Sea and Taiwan Strait. China opposes these efforts as “exclusive groupings for bloc confrontation”.
On Thursday, US President Joe Biden hosted his Philippine counterpart, Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for talks over their territorial disputes with China.
The overlapping claims with Japan involve the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, which China calls the Diaoyu Islands, and with the Philippines, the Second Thomas Shoal, or Ren’ai Jiao, in the South China Sea.
“When we stand as one, we’re able to forge a better future for all,” Biden said, warning that “any attack on Philippine aircraft, vessels or armed forces in the South China Sea would invoke our mutual defence treaty”.
They pledged to support each other against Beijing’s “aggressive behaviour” through military build-up, and announced plans to conduct trilateral exercises and “other maritime activities” in the Indo-Pacific within the next year.
Beijing summoned Japanese and Filipino diplomats because of what it condemned as their “negative moves” in Washington.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning warned Tokyo and Manila to engage less “in trilateral cooperation at the expense of other countries’ interests”, accusing them of bringing “confrontation in the region”.
The Chinese embassy in Washington said the three countries’ joint statement was “tainted with smears against China” and their “target is all too clear”.
The trilateral summit between the Philippines, United States and Japan in Washington saw a number of announcements focused on strengthening maritime defence cooperation in the South China Sea to counter Beijing’s increasingly aggressive actions in the disputed waters.
Of particular interest to the Philippines was confirmation its coastguard would be included in Manila’s mutual defence treaty with the US, as well as a number of “high-impact infrastructure projects”.
The joint statement released by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the conclusion of Thursday’s summit made it clear that the meeting was aimed at opposing Beijing’s recent maritime activities.
“We express our serious concerns about the People’s Republic of China’s dangerous and aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea,” the statement said. “We are also concerned by the militarisation of reclaimed features and unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea.”
The statement also expressed “steadfast” opposition to “the dangerous and coercive use of Coast Guard and maritime militia vessels in the South China Sea”, a reference to Beijing’s strategy of using both military and paramilitary maritime forces.
In Beijing, foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said China “firmly opposes the relevant countries manipulating bloc politics, and firmly opposes any behaviour that provokes or lays plans for opposition, and hurts other countries’ strategic security and interests”.
Japan and the Philippines “should not invite factional opposition into the region, much less engage in trilateral cooperation at the cost of hurting another country’s interests”, Mao said, adding that China’s actions in the East and South China Seas “are appropriate and lawful, and beyond reproach”.
The summit leaders also reiterated “serious concern over [China’s] repeated obstruction of Philippine vessels’ exercise of high seas freedom of navigation and the disruption of supply lines to Second Thomas Shoal”. The shoal is a maritime landmark in the West Philippine Sea – Manila’s term for the section of the South China Sea that defines its maritime territory and includes its exclusive economic zone.
In recent years, Chinese vessels have repeatedly attempted to disrupt resupply missions to troops stationed at the BRP Sierra Madre – a World War II-era Philippine Navy vessel that was deliberately grounded on the shoal to strengthen Manila’s territorial claims to the surrounding waters – including through the use of high-pressure water cannon.
Marcos held a separate meeting with his US counterpart, after which he told the media: “President Biden reinforced the ironclad US alliance commitment to the Philippines under the US-Philippines Mutual Defence Treaty [MDT], which extends to armed attacks on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft – to include those of its Coast Guard – in the Pacific, including anywhere in the South China Sea.”
The mention of the coastguard was seen as particularly significant since security analysts had earlier pointed out the MDT does not explicitly apply to “armed attacks” on the coastguard, which has in recent months borne the brunt of water cannon attacks from Chinese coastguard vessels.
Biden also reiterated that “any attack on Philippine aircraft, vessels or armed forces in the South China Sea would invoke our mutual defence treaty”.
China’s embassy in Manila said it was unimpressed by the summit’s mention of the MDT.
“China is determined to uphold our territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests. The [MDT] will not move us a bit from our will and resolve,” it said.
The three countries said their respective coastguards would work closely together in the IndoPacific and hold joint exercises and other maritime activities to “improve interoperability”.
Asked if he had been expecting the announcement of joint activities, Rear Admiral Armand Balilo, a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman, told the Post: “Yes, we have been in coordination with Japan and the US for interoperability exercises. In fact, we have invited them to join the exercise this June in western Visayas.”
He said the focus of the exercises was interoperability “in functions like search and rescue, law enforcement and environmental protection”. Asked if this might escalate tensions with China, Balilo said: “I don’t think so. This is white-to-white ship engagement and focused on coastguard functions.”
At the summit, the three leaders also launched the “Luzon Economic Corridor” to “support connectivity between Subic Bay, Clark, Manila and Batangas”. Subic and Clark are former American military bases – the biggest outside the continental US during the Cold War.
The three countries also said they would invest in “high-impact infrastructure projects, including rail; ports modernisation; clean energy and semiconductor supply chains and deployments; agribusiness; and civilian port upgrades at Subic Bay”.
Meanwhile, in an interview with the Chinese state-run news outlet Global Times published online on Thursday, former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte criticised the close ties between his country and the US.
“America is giving the instructions to the Philippine government to ‘not be afraid because we will back you up’,” he said.
He claimed “there was no quarrel” during his time as president. “I hope that we can stop the ruckus over there, because the Americans are the ones pushing the Philippine government to go out there and find a quarrel and eventually maybe start a war.”
We express our serious concerns about … China’s dangerous and aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea
JOINT STATEMENT BY THE THREE LEADERS