The chief of staff of the Philippine military has announced plans for joint maritime and air patrols with like-minded nations, against a background of escalating tensions with Chinese forces in the South China Sea.
"It's in the planning process," General Romeo Brawner Jr. told CNN Philippines' The Source Tuesday. "We are going to conduct our joint maritime and air patrols in the West Philippine Sea with the U.S.; Japan is interested, France, the U.K. and Canada."
The West Philippine Sea is Manila's name for the parts of the South China Sea falling within the Philippines' 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone. The region is the focal point of heated territorial disputes, with China asserting sovereignty over upward of 80 percent of the South China Sea, despite a 2016 international arbitral court ruling that rejected its claims.
Brawner said the proposed multinational patrols could start as early as the first half of the next year.
The Philippines' defense ministry and its embassy in the U.S. didn't immediately respond to Newsweek's written requests for comment.
South Korea has emerged as another potential patrol partner. The East Asian country's ambassador to the Philippines, Lee Sang-hwa, told local media Tuesday that the two countries' relationship was "reaching new heights" and that Seoul is interested in raising it to the level of a "strategic partnership."
"We will not stop at rhetoric, but will push ahead to expand and deepen substantive cooperation in various areas, including maritime security," he added.
With an eye on China, the Philippines has been actively enhancing cooperation through joint exercises with partners in the region.
Last month, the Southeast Asian country conducted its first bilateral air and sea patrols with Australia in the western part of the South China Sea.
"It's hard to say how China will react to the joint patrols as of now, but during the U.S. and Australian patrols Chinese forces did not directly interfere," defense journalist Aaron-Matthew Lariosa told Newsweek when asked about China's reaction to the Philippines' latest international outreach.
In October, joint drills involving the U.S., the Philippines, Australia, Canada, France, Japan and the U.K., aimed to bolster interoperability among the armed forces of these nations. Additionally, the Philippines engaged in military exercises with the U.S., Australia and Japan in August, in waters off Manila.
Greg Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, D.C., said Manila's encouragement of international drills in its backyard has so far paid off.
"The multilateral patrols are part and parcel of a much larger, coherent Philippine strategy of patrolling its own waters and resupplying or repairing its facility at Second Thomas Shoal despite Chinese pressure. So far that strategy has been quite effective and left China unable to effectively respond," he told Newsweek.
The disputed Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands has become a focal point of the David versus Goliath territorial feud.
The Philippines maintains a small contingent of troops there on the BRP Sierra Madre, a former U.S. warship deliberately grounded by Manila in 1999. China claims it is illegal, and its coast guard and unofficial maritime militia regularly seek to block supply missions to the ship-turned-base.
"Whether the multilateral patrols will evolve into more than just exercises, to include actual support for Philippines resupply missions and the like, probably depends on whether China increases the violence it employs against Philippine vessels," Poling said, observing that, for now at least, the Philippines seems content to conduct those missions by itself.
Earlier this week, the Philippines said over 130 Chinese maritime militia ships were anchored off the Spratly Island feature Whitsun Reef, which like Second Thomas Shoal lies within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone. According to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, that grants it the sole rights to underwater resources in the zone.
Beijing described the reef as its territory and "an important area where Chinese fishing boats operate and seek shelter."
The U.S. has in recent months repeatedly affirmed its commitment to its Mutual Defense Treaty with the Philippines, which American officials including President Joe Biden said extends to Philippine ships, planes, or personnel anywhere—including in the South China Sea.
Update 12/7/23, 9:00 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comments by Greg Poling and Aaron-Matthew Lariosa.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Micah McCartney is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers U.S.-China relations, East Asian and Southeast Asian ... Read more
