Recent remarks by ASEAN and Indian officials suggest that Delhi is looking to deepen its involvement in the South China Sea issue. Most notable are the remarks Shri Anil Wadhwa, Secretary (East) of India’s Ministry of External Affairs, made last week at the Delhi Dialogue VI, an annual ASEAN-India dialogue. Speaking to the journalists at […]
China still poses a military threat to Taiwan and is continuously boosting its combat capability to a point where it can mount a full attack on the island, according to a new report submitted Wednesday. China’s combat capabilities are expected to reach that level by 2020, according to the report handed to the Legislature’s Foreign […]
Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines and the United States have criticized China for imposing new access rules for the vast South China Sea, saying Beijing’s demand that foreign vessels get approval to enter the disputed maritime area is provocative and potentially destabilizing. But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying retorted Friday that the rules that went into […]
Nearly three weeks ago, Beijing’s announcement of an East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) set in motion vociferous reactions in the region and beyond, and debates over the policy and its implications continue apace. The specific reasons that the ADIZ was seen as provocative have been well-rehearsed: The declaration of an air defense […]
BEIJING — The Chinese air force sent its mainstay Su-30 and J-11 fighters and an early-warning aircraft to patrol its air defense identification zone on Thursday, an air force spokesman told China’s state-run Xinhua news agency. The spokesman said the air force “will make patrol flights within the zone standard practice,” but did not clarify whether […]
MANILA – Super typhoon Yolanda has sent home Chinese maritime and Navy vessels at the Ayungin Reef in Palawan, while the half a dozen Philippine Marines on board a rusting and grounded World War II-era ship are safe, a source told InterAksyon.com. This effectively ends the standoff between the two countries some 100 nautical miles […]
I have written repeatedly about the need to resolve the West Philippines Sea dispute with China through litigation. At the time when the Department of Foreign Affairs was still debating internally on whether to submit the issue to arbitration or resolve it through diplomacy, I was already arguing that arbitration was the only option given […]
Philippines said today it is purchasing a surplus French Navy vessel to boost its forces in the South China Sea where it has an ongoing territorial dispute with China. The 26-year-old “La Tapageuse” vessel is likely to be the first of several French ships that will be acquired by the Philippine coastguard as it contends […]
If there is ever going to be an end to tensions over the South China Sea, one of the world’s most strategically important waterways, countries in the region need to find a way to work out their volatile maritime disputes. China, more than any other nation, has fanned those hostilities with sweeping sovereignty claims and […]
MANILA – The European Parliament has expressed its full support of the Philippine government’s decision to bring its territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea before a United Nations arbitration tribunal and called on Beijing to adhere to international law. A resolution adopted March 14 by the European Union’s parliament approved a report […]