The Philippines, US and Japanese armies held joint exercises this week in the Bashi Channel that separates the Philippines and Taiwan, and officials announced on 20th February.
The three countries deployed aircraft to fly over the northernmost islands of Batanes in the Philippines in exercises “to demonstrate their capability to work smoothly within and without each other in operational complex maritime situations,” the Philippine military said.
It is the first instance where the so-called Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activities (MMCAs) between the countries have gone beyond the South China Sea, where the Philippines and China have been involved in repeated conflicts over the disputed territory.
The Philippines and self-governing Taiwan are separated by little over 100 kilometres, which
is seen by China as its own land, and it has not yet ruled out the use of force.
According to the Philippine military, “the air operations were carried out on Philippine territory and its surrounding waters, in its territorial waters and in the west of the Batanes island chain, off Luzon.”
The chief of armed forces public affairs, Colonel Xerxes Trinidad, told AFP that it was the “first time MMCA” had been operated within the “said operational box.”
According to the statement by the military, the box extended up to the northern end of Luzon, especially to Mavulis Island, where the Philippine Navy and Marine detachments are based in small numbers.
Friday saw a reaction by the military of China to the exercises.
According to Zhai Shichen, a spokesperson of the PLA Southern Theatre Command, “the Philippines co-opted the countries that were not in the region in order to arrange the so-called joint patrols, which interrupted peace and stability in the region.”
He also included that China had made a “routine patrol” of the South China Sea between February 23 and 26.
In November, relations between Japan and Beijing went down the drain as the Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takach gave a suggestion that Tokyo could intervene in case of any invasion of Taiwan.
Beijing also banned the export of its products and threatened its citizens against going to Japan, as it accused Tokyo of striving to promote militarism.
The Japanese defence minister took it a notch higher, and on Tuesday, he stated that Tokyo would put in place surface-to-air missiles on one of its distant western islands close to Taiwan by early 2031.
In August, the Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos threatened to drag the Philippines kicking and screaming into any war over Taiwan.
“I hope it doesn’t happen… However, when it does, we need to prepare for it now,” he said, referring to the high levels of Filipinos employed in Taiwan.
The Philippine- US- Japan exercise lasted six days and ended on Thursday. It was a live-firing gunnery drill of the guided missile frigate BRP Antonio Luna.
