The Philippines has stated it is sending a new vessel to “immediately take over” from a coast guard ship that returned to port from a debated atoll in the South China Sea. Manila expressed blocking and ramming by the Chinese coastguard had left the Teresa Magbuana, the Philippines’ largest coast guard vessel, harmed and its crew dehydrated and malnourished.
The Philippines shipped the Teresa Magbuana to the Sabina Shoal last April to prevent China from seizing the reef, which it argues historic rights over. Beijing argues almost the whole of the South China Sea as its maritime waters, although an international arbitration panel denied its claims in 2016. Beijing criticised the deployment of the Philippines ship as
“a serious violation of China’s territorial sovereignty, a grave violation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, and a severe undermining of regional peace and stability”.
Chinese coast guard vessels rammed the Teresa Magbuana around the Sabina Shoal last month and a Philippines vessel struck a Chinese boat.
The National Maritime Council of the Philippines stated that the Teresa Magbuana had carried out its “sentinel duties against overwhelming odds” and was returning to port with its assignment accomplished. Manila expressed it was sending another vessel to the reef but the Chinese coast guard expressed it would continue to carry out what it called “law enforcement” operations there.
China and the Philippines, which have also been immersed in a stand-off over the Second Thomas Shoal, another reef in the South China Sea, held discussions in Beijing last week. China’s foreign affairs vice-minister Chen Xiaodong and Maria Theresa Lazaro, the Philippine undersecretary for foreign affairs, assembled as part of the China-Philippines Bilateral Consultation Mechanism, which was founded in 2017.
“The two sides had a frank and in-depth exchange of ideas on the maritime issues between China and the Philippines, in particular the problem of Xianbin Jiao,”
the Chinese foreign ministry stated, using the Chinese name for the Sabina Shoal.
Uncertainties in the South China Sea were among the subjects discussed at the Beijing Xiangshan Forum, a three-day military diplomacy event, although the Philippines dwelled away. Approximately 1,800 delegates from more than 100 nations and international organisations were at the meeting, which has become an increasingly necessary security policy meeting in recent years. The US has cautioned that an escalation in China’s conflict with the Philippines could trigger Washington’s joint defence treaty with Manila. But China’s defence minister Dong Jun recommended that countries in the region should determine their problems without involving foreign states, stating that their security remains “in their own hands”.
Singapore’s defence minister Ng Eng Hen called for discussion to resolve conflicts in the South China Sea, but he also stated that Beijing and Washington must put their concerns on a better trajectory.
