Justice Antonio T. Carpio Excerpt: Today, a new threat has emerged, not internally but externally across the South China Sea. China, a nuclear armed state and the superpower in our region, wants to seize 80 percent of our Exclusive Economic Zone in the West Philippine Sea. The Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi declared before an international […]
GWADAR, Pakistan — The idea of transforming the ancient fishing village of Gwadar into a bustling port city has been around since at least 1954, when Pakistan commissioned the U.S. Geological Survey to examine its coastline. Their conclusion: Gwadar, which sits on the Arabian Sea, would be an ideal location for a deep-water port. Gwadar’s […]
CANBERRA, Australia — Australia’s prime minister said the Australian navy has a “perfect right” to traverse the South China Sea after a media report Friday that the Chinese navy had challenged three Australian warships in the hotly contested waterway. The Chinese “challenged” two Australian frigates and an oil replenishment ship this month as the Australian […]
MELBOURNE • Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull asserted his country’s right to conduct freedom of navigation exercises in the South China Sea after a media report said three Australian navy warships had been challenged by Chinese forces. The Australian Broadcasting Corp said the People’s Liberation Army, conducting its largest ever naval exercises in the region […]
MANILA, Philippines — Two Australian warships docked yesterday at Subic Bay in Olongapo City for a four-day goodwill visit in the country and will conduct maritime exercises in the West Philippine Sea. Dubbed Passing Exercises (PASSEX), the exercise will be held as the two visiting warships – the long–range guided missile frigate HMAS Anzac and […]
United States officials claimed that China has installed military jamming equipment on fortified artificial islands in the South China Sea which will allow Beijing to block enemy radar and communications systems. This latest step in China’s militarization of its island bases signifies Beijing’s determination to assert its regional territorial claims, regardless of U.S. opposition. According […]
Some warships of the Philippines’ traditional allies – US, Japan, and Australia – are set to dock in the Philippines this week for port visits amid escalating tensions in the South China Sea. The USS Theodore Roosevelt arrived in Manila on Wednesday for a port visit, the US Embassy announced. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is […]
Fake islands, the Taiwan Travel Act and Chinese outreach to Russia are making military conflict more likely. The tit-for-tat trade sanctions fight between the U.S and China may be getting the headlines and rocking financial markets, but some less-noticed recent flare-ups between the world’s preeminent powers may present more lasting, and perilous, complications for American […]
MANILA — As an “interested party” in the achievement of peace in the Pacific region, the United States is encouraging transparency in the negotiations for the crafting of the Code of Conduct (COC) on the West Philippine Sea. In a conference call with the press on Thursday, Patrick Murphy, US State Department’s Principal Deputy Assistant […]
In theory, any resource-sharing agreement should be consistent with both countries’ national as well as the 2016 international tribunal ruling at The Hague, which nullified much of China’s nine-dash line map claims to areas Manila views as its own. The Philippine constitution bars any JDA with a foreign entity that refuses to acknowledge the country’s […]