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Activities of the Claimants

China

Chinese navy starts distant water training

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Chinese Navy training vessels Zhenghe and Weifang, left Dalian on April 30th for 56 days of training in distant waters and will visit India, Myanmar, Indonesia and Vietnam. The fleet, under command of Han Xiaohu, assistant to the Chinese chief of naval operations, is scheduled to cross the Miyako Strait, the Malacca Strait and Sund Strait, covering a total of 12,000 nautical miles. The sailors on the fleet will hold exchange programs with their counterparts from the countries they visit, which include inviting foreign military students on board to eat and live with the Chinese sailors for several days.

4 Chinese ships to join major U.S. naval exercise for 1st time

Four Chinese vessels will participate in a series of major U.S.-hosted naval exercises starting in June, marking the first time Beijing sends its ships to the drills, The Associated Press has reported. China will send its hospital ship Peace Ark, as well as an oiler, a frigate and a destroyer to join the biennial Rim of The Pacific exercises, known as RIMPAC, off the coast of Hawaii, AP quoted Lt. Lenaya Rotklein, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy's Third Fleet, as saying. Together with 22 countries including Japan, South Korea and India, China will take part in the world's largest naval exercises that will run from June 26 to Aug. 1. The drills have been held since 1971.

Vietnam

Vietnam opposes illegal foreign activities in its waters

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Any activity conducted by foreign countries in Vietnam’s waters without permission is illegal and void, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Le Hai Binh has affirmed, adding that the country absolutely opposes it. Binh made the statement while answering reporters’ questions on a maritime notice issued by the China Maritime Safety Administration on May 3rd saying that drilling rig HYSY-981 is operating in a location of 15 degree 29 minutes 58 seconds north latitude and 111 degree 12 minutes 06 seconds east longitude from May 2nd to August 15th. The operation location of the drilling rig stated in the notice is totally within Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf, about 120 nautical miles from its coast, he said. “Vietnam has full historical evidence and legal bases affirming its sovereignty over Truong Sa and Hoang Sa archipelagoes as well as sovereign right and jurisdiction over its exclusive economic zone and continental shelf in line with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,” he stressed.

The U.S.

US bound to defend PHL in case of attack in South China Sea

The United States is bound to defend the Philippines in case of an attack in disputed territories in the South China Sea, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said on April 30th.  In a statement, Del Rosario sought to put to rest any doubts that the US will automatically aid the Philippines should the latter face external armed threats in portions of the South China Sea. Del Rosario said under the Philippine-US Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT), the US "will come to the assistance of the Philippines if our metropolitan territory is attacked or if our Armed Forces are attacked in the Pacific area.” “In 1999, in a diplomatic letter, the United States affirmed that the South China Sea is considered as part of the Pacific area,” he added. The letter Del Rosario was referring to was by former US Ambassador to the Philippines Thomas Hubbard to then-Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo Siazon sent on May 24, 1999. In that letter, Hubbard mentioned ex-US Defense Secretary William Cohen's statement that “the US considers the South China Sea to be part of the Pacific Area.”

Regional Snapshots

Australia, Japan talk shop on arms tech

Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera and Australian counterpart David Johnston agreed on April 28th to expand technological cooperation on defense equipment following Japan’s relaxation of a decades-old arms embargo. Johnston also backed the Prime Minister Shinizo Abe’s move to lift Japan’s ban on the right to collective self-defense, Onodera told reporters after the talks the coastal city of Perth. At a summit in Tokyo earlier this month, Abe and Australian leader Tony Abbott agreed to begin negotiations on forming a framework for jointly making defense equipment. Onodera and Johnston said the agreement might be reached in June, when the foreign and defense ministers of both countries will meet in Tokyo.

Philippines, US sign defense pact

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The Philippines and the United States signed an agreement on April 28th to allow a bigger US military presence on Filipino territory, hours ahead of a visit to Manila by US President Barack Obama. Philippine Defense Minister Voltaire Gazmin and US ambassador Philip Goldberg signed the 10-year pact, which is seen as another element of Obama’s effort to focus US military and economic attention more heavily on Asia. On the same day, President Barack Obama landed in the Philippines for a two-day visit. In a press conference with Philippine President Benigno Aquino, he said the U.S. had no desire to contain or counter China despite clinching a defence pact with the Philippines which will inject US forces close to the volatile South China Sea. Obama also directly addressed leaders in Beijing, telling them that maritime territorial disputes needed to be addressed peacefully, not with "intimidation or coercion". "We welcome China's peaceful rise. We have a constructive relationship with China. Our goal is not to counter China. Our goal is not to contain China," Obama said, taking on suspicions in Beijing that his policy of rebalancing power towards the Asia-Pacific was tantamount to encirclement. The US leader said that Washington did not take a position on the sovereignty of disputed territories variously claimed by China, Malaysia, Japan, the Philippines, Brunei and Vietnam. But he said that, as an Asia-Pacific nation, the United States was interested in the freedom of navigation and the peaceful resolution of disputes. On April 29th, US President Barack Obama ended the Asian tour with a warning to China against using force to resolve territorial disputes, and an "ironclad" promise of military support for the Philippines. Obama used an address to US and Filipino troops in Manila to again voice concern over the increasingly tense maritime rows between China and US allies in the region, an issue that has dominated his four-nation trip. "We believe that nations and peoples have the right to live in security and peace, to have their sovereignty and territorial integrity respected," Obama said. "We believe that international law must be upheld, that freedom of navigation must be preserved and commerce must not be impeded. We believe that disputes must be resolved peacefully and not by intimidation or force."