THE defense chiefs of the United States, Japan, Australia, and the Philippines have aired their “serious concern” over China’s “destabilizing actions” in the South China Sea (SCS) and East China Sea (ECS).
The defense leaders — Gilberto Teodoro Jr of the Philippines, Pete Hegseth of the US, Nakatani Gen of Japan, and Richard Marles of Australia — also agreed to enhance defense cooperation among their countries.
The four met in Singapore on Saturday on the sidelines of the Shangri-la Dialogue organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
“The defense leaders expressed continued serious concern about China’s destabilizing actions in the East China Sea and the South China Sea and any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion,” the defense establishments of the four nations said in a joint statement released by the Department of National Defense on Saturday night.
The Philippines, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan are locked in a territorial dispute in the SCS.
China, which is claiming almost the entire sea, has become aggressive in the past years and has harassed Philippine government vessels and aircraft and even Filipino fishing boats in the SCS, specifically in the West Philippine Sea.
China and Japan are also locked in a territorial dispute over the East China Sea. China has conducted aggressive actions in the area, including the deployment of an aircraft carrier last week.
The defense chiefs, in the statement, “reiterated their serious concern about dangerous conduct by China in the SCS against the Philippines and other countries, and stressed the importance of the peaceful resolution of disputes.”
They underscored the importance of upholding international law, freedom of navigation and overflight which are reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
“The defense leaders called for peace and stability in the region. They underscored the importance of the central role of ASEAN and the ASEAN-led regional architecture in ensuring security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region,” the statement added.
They also reaffirmed the importance of enhancing security cooperation, including in the field of infrastructure investments, “to support Philippine defense priorities and a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
DOMAIN AWARENESS
They acknowledged that the installation of Japan-made air surveillance system at Wallace Air Station in La Union, the US’ continued development and integration of air domain sensors at Basa Air Base in Pampanga and Control Fusion Center in Palawan, and Australia’s effort to support defense infrastructures in the Philippines have “collectively helped improve the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ air domain awareness in the SCS.”
“The defense leaders committed to further synchronizing security cooperation to better support air and maritime domain awareness and other defense priorities,” the statement added.
They also recognized the importance of sharing information, welcoming the signing of a General Security of Military Information Agreement between the US and the Philippines in November last year.
Japan and Australia are intending to discuss a similar agreement with the Philippines, the statement said.
The defense chiefs agreed to jointly invest in the Philippines’ cybersecurity and resilience for defense, and reaffirmed the significance of operational collaboration and synchronization in the Indo-Pacific region including in the SCS and ECS “for greater deterrence, peace, and security.”
The defense chiefs vowed to continuing working together and with other like-minded countries “to support peace, stability, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.”
‘DEFICIT OF TRUST’
Teodoro, after a plenary address yesterday, said China has a “deficit of trust” amid continuing efforts to come up with an Asean-China Code on Conduct in the South China Sea.
He noted that in 1995, China built bamboo structures on Mischief Reef, which the Chinese said were temporary haven for fisherfolk.
“Now, you have an artificial military island, heavily militarized,” he said.
“China says that it has peaceful intentions. Why does it continue to deny the Philippines its rightful provenance under international law and UNCLOS?” he added.
Teodoro said no country is supporting China’s excessive claims in the South China Sea.
“Several countries in the world, no less than 50, have joined the Philippines in condemning China’s behavior in the South China Sea. None have agreed with China and none has condemned the Philippines for standing up against China in the face of a threat to its territorial integrity and sovereignty, for which I thank the members in this chamber right now for your support,” he said.
Teodoro said dialogue, to be effective, should be coupled with trust. “And China has a lot of trust building to do to be an effective negotiating partner in dispute settlement,” he said.
“We have to call a spade a spade. And that’s what we see and that is the biggest stumbling block to dispute resolution or dialogue with China, that deficit of trust which I think any rational person or any person that is not ideologically biased with freedom of thought and freedom of speech will agree with,” he added.
Teodoro rebuked Chinese interlocutors who asked him questions during the dialogue about a proxy war in Asia and why Philippines and China cannot manage their dispute the same way China, Malaysia and Vietnam have “effectively managed” their differences.
Teodoro said these were “propaganda spiels disguised as questions.”
Teodoro said China did not send its defense minister to the dialogue. Instead, he said China sent journalists who he surmised are Chinese intelligence agents.
On Friday, AFP chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr declined to answer questions from Chinese journalists who asked him questions, as he was walking at the Shangri-la Hotel on the way to a meeting, about the tension in the South China Sea, and Philippine plans about cays near the Philippine-occupied Pag-asa Island.
The China Daily later came out with a story, titled “Philippine military chief dodges questions,” where it said Philippine officials “waived us off and walked away” when asked about the cays where, it alleged, the Philippines has been sending people to occupy unmanned features.
In a statement, the AFP said the article was a “blatant piece of propaganda aimed at discrediting the AFP and undermining the Philippines’ position in the West Philippine Sea.”
PROTEST
China has protested to the United States over “vilifying” remarks made by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the foreign ministry said on Sunday, while accusing it of deliberately ignoring calls for peace from regional nations.
China has objected to Hegseth calling it a threat in the Indo-Pacific, the ministry added, describing his comments at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday as “deplorable” and “intended to sow division.”
“Hegseth deliberately ignored the call for peace and development by countries in the region, and instead touted the Cold War mentality for bloc confrontation, vilified China with defamatory allegations, and falsely called China a ‘threat’,” the ministry said on its website.
“The United States has deployed offensive weaponry in the South China Sea and kept stoking flames and creating tensions in the Asia-Pacific, which are turning the region into a powder keg,” the ministry added in the statement.
Hegseth had called on allies in the Indo-Pacific region, including key security ally Australia, to spend more on defense after warning of the “real and potentially imminent” threat from China.
Asked about the call to boost defense spending, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government had pledged an extra A$10 billion to defense.
“What we’ll do is we’ll determine our defense policy,” he told reporters on Sunday, a transcript of his remarks showed.
As part of Washington’s longstanding defense ties with the Philippines, the U.S. military this year deployed Typhon launchers that can fire missiles to hit targets in both China and Russia from the island of Luzon. – With Reuters
