MANILA, Philippines (AP) — U.S. and Philippine fighter aircraft staged a joint patrol and training Tuesday over a disputed South China Sea shoal where Chinese fighter jets fired flares last year to drive away a Philippine aircraft, Philippine officials said.
The joint patrol and air-intercept drills over the hotly disputed Scarborough Shoal off the northwestern Philippines were the first by the longtime treaty allies since U.S. President Donald Trump took office again.
Trump’s “America First” foreign policy thrust has sparked concerns among Washington’s allies in Asia about the scale and depth of U.S. commitment to the region in his new term. His predecessor, Joe Biden, had moved to strengthen an arc of security alliances in the region to counter China’s increasingly assertive actions.
Two U.S. Air Force B-1 bomber aircraft and three Philippine Air Force FA-50 fighter jets joined the brief patrol and training, which involved practicing how to intercept a hostile aircraft, Philippine air force spokesperson Maria Consuelo Castillo said in a news briefing.
It was not immediately known if the joint patrol encountered any challenge from Chinese forces guarding the Scarborough Shoal.
“The exercises focused on enhancing operational coordination, improving air domain awareness and reinforcing agile combat employment capabilities between the two air forces,” the Philippine Air Force said.
In August last year, two Chinese air force aircraft flew close then fired flares in the path of a Philippine air force plane on routine patrol over the Scarborough Shoal in actions that were strongly condemned and protested by the Philippine government, military officials said.
All those aboard the Philippine air force NC-212i turbo-prop transport plane were unharmed, the Philippine military said.
The Southern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army said then that a Philippine air force aircraft “illegally” entered the airspace above the shoal and disrupted training activities by Chinese forces. It warned the Philippines to “stop its infringement, provocation, distortion and hyping-up.”
The Philippine military chief, Gen. Romeo Brawner, said at the time that the incident “posed a threat to Philippine air force aircraft and its crew, interfered with lawful flight operations in airspace within Philippine sovereignty and jurisdiction and contravened international law and regulations governing safety of aviation.”
China and the Philippines have had increasingly alarming faceoffs in the shoal, which is called Bajo de Masinloc by the Philippines and Huangyan Island by China.
“We are always prepared for any contingency, it’s part of the training,” Castillo said when asked if the allied forces had prepared to address any challenge by Chinese aircraft.
“It already happened before and, as I have said, whatever the coercive, aggressive actions of any foreign party, the Philippine air force will not be deterred to perform its mandate,” Castillo said.
The U.S. military has reported encountering such dangerous maneuvers by Chinese air force planes in the past over the disputed waters, where it has deployed fighter jets and navy ships to promote freedom of navigation and overflight.
China has bristled at U.S. military deployments in the disputed region, saying these have endangered regional security.
Aside from China and the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia,Vietnam and Taiwan have overlapping territorial claims in the busy sea passage, a key global trade and security route, but hostilities have particularly flared in the past two years between Chinese and Philippine coast guard and navy forces in the Scarborough Shoal and another fiercely contested atoll, the Second Thomas Shoal.
Washington has repeatedly warned that it’s obligated to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Philippine forces, ships and aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.
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