MILITARY SUPPORT

[Yeochief]

[Snowy79]

This could be a big test for your current POTUS.  Personally I don't think it's looking good for the Philippines as there's no oil here. .  

[Guy F.]

7 hours ago, Snowy79 said:

This could be a big test for your current POTUS.  Personally I don't think it's looking good for the Philippines as there's no oil here. .  

The US Embassy says there is...

"The waters of the South China Sea are home to a dizzying array of marine resources, ranging from vast oil and gas reserves deep beneath the surface to the complex and beautiful ecosystems capable of supporting international seafood markets and unraveling scientific mysteries."

 

https://ph.usembassy.gov/the-philippines-future-floats-in-the-west-philippine-sea/

ADDED BY JOLLYGOODFELLOW: Full article as per rules below, click

Spoiler

The waters of the South China Sea are home to a dizzying array of marine resources, ranging from vast oil and gas reserves deep beneath the surface to the complex and beautiful ecosystems capable of supporting international seafood markets and unraveling scientific mysteries.  This is the patrimony of Southeast Asian nations, the lifeblood of their coastal communities, and the livelihood of millions of their citizens.  The United States stands alongside the Philippines and other Southeast Asian partners to uphold a rules-based order that ensures sovereign, sustainable, and productive access to the South China Sea and its resources.

At last month’s ASEAN Summit, ASEAN leaders reaffirmed the importance of maintaining the South China Sea “as a sea of peace, stability, and prosperity.”  To strengthen our support for sovereignty and freedom of the seas, this week, the United States announced an important change in U.S. policy regarding maritime claims in the South China Sea.

As U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo explained, the United States rejects any People’s Republic of China (PRC) maritime claims within the Philippine’s Exclusive Economic Zone or continental shelf, and claims in waters beyond 12 nautical miles from the islands in the Spratlys.  Beijing’s harassment of Philippine fisheries and offshore energy development within those areas is unlawful, as are any unilateral PRC actions to exploit those resources.  Under the 2016 Arbitral Tribunal Award, which is final and legally binding, the Philippines enjoys sovereign rights and jurisdiction with respect to the natural resources in its EEZ.  As Secretary of Foreign Affairs Locsin remarked this weekend on the anniversary of the ruling, “The arbitral tribunal’s award of 12 July 2016 represents a victory, not just for the Philippines, but for the entire community of consistently law-abiding nations.”

Why is this important?  Here in the Philippines, the West Philippine Sea epitomizes the rich marine diversity of this country.  In its waters, scientists have discovered hundreds of species of fish, coral, seagrass, and other marine life existing in interdependent systems that teach us about the planet’s complexity, fragility, and resilience.  These habitats not only provide the fish that fill Filipino fishing vessels (and Filipino plates), they also serve as spawning grounds for schools that populate seas throughout Southeast Asia.  Philippine scientists believe some of the species unique to these waters may also hold the key to biomedical breakthroughs, while climate researchers can study ecosystem changes to measure human impact on the environment.

Marine conservation begins with securing territorial integrity; when any nation uses coercion, subversion, disinformation, and other underhanded tactics to further its position in the South China Sea, it denies our friends and partners the right to build a sustainable future.  ASEAN leaders expressed concern over activities and serious incidents in the South China Sea which have “eroded trust and confidence, increased tensions, and may undermine peace, security and stability in the region.”  The United States remains committed to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, and will continue to defend the right of freedom of navigation in international waters and airways.  Earlier this month, the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group conducted dual-carrier operations with the Ronald Reagan and Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carriers, demonstrating U.S. commitment to mutual defense agreements and promoting peace and prosperity throughout the Indo-Pacific.  The United States supports Philippine Coast Guard capacity to defend its waters by supplying expert training and new equipment.

Since the 1990s, the United States has supported Philippine marine and biodiversity conservation efforts.  Our Php1.3 billion five-year Fish Right project works alongside Philippine partners to strengthen the sustainable use of critical coastal and marine resources to benefit more than 2 million people.  When the COVID-19 pandemic further threatened marine livelihoods, Fish Right helped develop Fish Tiangge, an online marketplace connecting buyers and 6,000 fisherfolk in three of the Philippines’ most important areas for marine biodiversity.  American companies are also contributing, with Bloomberg Philanthropies’ global development alliance promoting marine conservation and sustainable fishing in more than 150,000 hectares of biologically significant waters.

U.S. scientists and innovators are eager to join their Philippine colleagues in researching these waters to build a sustainable maritime framework – one that protects the West Philippine Sea’s rich and irreplaceable biodiversity while ensuring new generations benefit from its bounty and wonder.  Through the recently ratified U.S.-Philippines Science and Technology Agreement, together we are building new pathways to increased scientific collaboration in the West Philippine Sea and beyond.  Youth play a central role in achieving long-term marine sustainability.  We have partnered with alumni from the U.S. Young South East Asia Leadership Initiative exchange program for Sea and Earth Advocates (SEA) camps to train young conservation leaders and sponsored programs like the “Haquathon Summit,” where thirty-five teams developed tech-based solutions to save the seas.

Through these activities and our commitment to a free and open rules-based order that upholds the sovereign rights of all states regardless of size, power, and military capabilities, the United States will continue to support our Philippine friends, partners, and allies in conserving the rich marine biodiversity that make this island nation so special.

 

Edited April 8, 2021 by Jollygoodfellow
full article

[OnMyWay]

3 hours ago, Guy F. said:

The US Embassy says there is...

"The waters of the South China Sea are home to a dizzying array of marine resources, ranging from vast oil and gas reserves deep beneath the surface to the complex and beautiful ecosystems capable of supporting international seafood markets and unraveling scientific mysteries."

 

https://ph.usembassy.gov/the-philippines-future-floats-in-the-west-philippine-sea/

It figures that the current administration would be more interested in the vast oil and gas reserves there, rather than in the U.S.

[BrettGC]

The military strategic value of the area can't be forgotten either.  It's for a similar reason the USN presence in Singapore has been increasing over the years.  

[Guy F.]

Why don't we hear anything about China pressuring Singapore?

[BrettGC]

13 minutes ago, Guy F. said:

Why don't we hear anything about China pressuring Singapore?

Singapore, like so many countries in the region walk a tight-rope; China is their largest trade partner and the US is their main defence ally.  Interesting article here from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute last year that actually mentions the Philippines briefly as well:

Quote

Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in May 2019, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong called on China and the United States to reach a strategic accommodation amid their festering dispute over trade, technology and other issues.

The US, Lee stressed, needed to forge a ‘new understanding’ that would integrate China’s aspirations within the ‘current system of rules and norms’. Both would need to work together to revise the world system.

Lee’s keynote was widely followed around the world, given the nature of the Sino-US impasse and the need for smaller countries to adapt and evolve their policies amid the growing schism between China and the United States.

Singapore’s policy position is also worth watching because the island republic is a major strategic partner of the United States and a close economic partner of China.

The strategic conundrum mapped out by Lee underscores a deeper malaise in the Asia–Pacific. To paraphrase W.B. Yeats, the regional order is falling apart. As Gideon Rachman put it the Financial Times, America’s military pre-eminence and diplomatic predictability can no longer be taken as a given; at the same time, China is no longer willing to accept a secondary role in the region’s evolving security system.

One of the roots of the contestation arises from the fact that Washington refuses to cede primacy.

Indeed, the new-fangled ‘free and open’ Indo-Pacific strategy—with the enshrined principles of freedom of navigation, respect for international law and maritime security—is seen by many as a euphemism for maintaining the US-led regional order.

China is not working to upend the US-led system, which has worked to its benefit, particularly in the areas of liberalisation of trade and global supply chains.

One assessment is that China’s proposal of an ‘Asia for Asians’ formulation is an indirect way of keeping the US out of the region. Put differently, China’s strategy is to weaken US alliances, erode American centrality in China’s periphery and eventually create a new regional order with China at the core.

The festering geopolitical competition between China and the US has only increased the pressure on Singapore to ‘choose a side’.

As founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew used to say, when elephants fight, the grass is trampled; yet, when they make love, the grass also tends to suffer.

In fact, Singapore’s inclination not to take sides between the two major powers has a long history. Speaking to the Asahi Shimbun in 2010, Lee Kuan Yew said Singapore had never sought to conscribe (zhiheng) China.

Rather, Singapore sought to effect a balance (pingheng) in the Pacific, based on the presence of American power.

To paraphrase Lord Palmerston, Singapore doesn’t deem itself to have permanent friends in the US and China; it only pursues pro-US and pro-China policies when such policies are judged to be in the republic’s interests.

In 1978, the US Navy used Tengah Air Base for long-range flights over the Indian Ocean. After the US military was booted out of Philippine bases in the early 1990s, Singapore offered the US access to naval facilities at Changi Naval Base—a direct recognition that the US military presence is beneficial for regional stability.

In September last year, the US and Singapore renewed a 1990 memorandum of understanding which allows US military aircraft and naval vessels to use facilities on the island.

The two countries signed a landmark free trade agreement in 2003 and were partners in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (until US President Donald President withdrew the US from the pact).

Singapore–US ties are so close that one US official noted that the Philippines, a formal US ally, acts more like a partner, while Singapore is a partner that acts like an ally.

At the same time, Sino-Singapore relations have never been better. Singapore is China’s top foreign investor and a firm supporter of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Belt and Road Initiative. The two governments have formed partnerships to develop three projects in China: Suzhou Industrial Park, the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative and Tianjin Eco-city.

Unsurprisingly, Singapore doesn’t want to be caught in any countervailing coalition, led by the US or otherwise, against China.

Speaking to the Washington Post in September, Lee Hsien Loong noted that US allies and partners are so ‘deeply enmeshed’ with China that forcing them to dissociate from Beijing would be a ‘challenging strategic stance to make’. That doesn’t mean that Singapore can avoid making a choice indefinitely.

The renewal of the 1990 Singapore–US agreement could lead to China’s asking for formal access to Singaporean facilities by Chinese warships. In a Taiwan Strait contingency, Singapore might be asked by the US to provide resupply and access to US naval ships going from the Persian Gulf towards the strait. That would put it in a quandary.

As a US Navy admiral has described it more vividly, Singapore is walking on a narrowing tightrope between the two powers. In the meantime, however, kicking the can down the road makes strategic sense.

https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/how-long-can-singapore-walk-the-tightrope-between-the-us-and-china/

As an ex-Aussie navy "spook", this stuff was my bread and butter for years, there's a hell of a lot more to it all than in the article, but if I told you I'd have to kill you 

 

[Snowy79]

I doubt Duterte will allow any intervention over islands that were pretty much lost a long time ago.  He has already released a statement reminding people that China is helping the Philippines with Covid. That doesn't sound like he is too bothered.  I'm sure neither China or the US is seen as a threat in his eyes to the Philippines so why get involved?  It's more a threat to Western interests in the area I'd say.