INCREASED patrols and exercises have lately surged in the Palawan area, well within the country’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone.
Last weekend, the United States deployed a carrier strike group from the Indo-Pacific Command to the West Philippine Sea to conduct the first Maritime Cooperative Activity of 2025 with Filipino forces.
Officials said the activity on Jan. 17-18 included the guided missile frigate BRP Antonio Luna, the offshore patrol vessel BRP Andres Bonifacio, two FA50 fighter aircraft, and Philippine Air Force Search and Rescue assets.
Backing up the Filipino forces was a US aircraft carrier strike group centered around the USS Carl Vinson and its air group, escorted by the guided missile cruiser USS Princeton, destroyer USS Sterett, an MH-60 Seahawk helicopter, a V-22 Osprey helicopter, and two F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter bombers.
The two militaries conducted a Communications Check Exercise, Division Tactics/Officer of the Watch maneuver, a Photo Exercise, and Dissimilar Aircraft Combat Training, according to a news release from the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
The maritime cooperative activities demonstrate a “collective commitment to strengthening regional and international cooperation in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific,” according to a news release by the US Navy.
China has responded to such activities between the two treaty allies in the South China Sea by increasing its patrols and exercises in the area, expressing the line the Philippines should adapt to this process.
Coincidentally, the first joint drills of 2025 took place only three days before Donald Trump, who has spoken little about the region as president-elect, returns to the White House which he occupied for four years from Jan. 2017.
The 78-year-old Trump has spoken to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. via phone call and has met with the President’s cousin, Philippine ambassador to the US Babes Romualdez, in person.
Certainly, there will be many phrasal verbs and ripples from the increasing drills and exercises near the strategic international sea lane in the South China Sea.
What is concerning is the often intrusion of Chinese vessels, including Beijing’s Coast Guard, in the West Philippine Sea, which clearly violates Philippines territory.
Washington has been on the right sail with its freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, while expressing support for an agreement on a binding code of conduct in the region, and expressing it will do what is necessary to assist the Philippines in the tension-filled South China Sea.
The activities in the West Philippine Sea are certain to have ripples as well in the Southeast Asian region, with the Philippines’ co-member countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations keenly keeping their guard, and in East Asia, where China and the United States are astutely watching each other from the different wheelhouses of their ships.
