Philippine top diplomats express concerns over Chinese militia boats

This handout satellite imagery taken on March 23, 2021 and received on March 25 from Maxar Technologies shows Chinese vessels anchored at the Whitsun Reef, around 320 kilometres (175 nautical miles) west of Bataraza in Palawan in the South China Sea. - AFP

WASHINGTON (Reuters): US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin, in a phone call on Thursday (April 8), expressed their shared concerns about Chinese militia vessels in South China Sea, the US State Department said in a statement.

Blinken also reaffirmed that a US-Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty applied to the South China Sea, the statement said.

The Philippines has described the presence of hundreds of Chinese boats inside its 200-mile exclusive economic zone at Whitsun Reef in the South China Sea as "swarming and threatening."

Chinese diplomats have said the boats were sheltering from rough seas and no militia were aboard.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, China and Vietnam have competing territorial claims in the South China Sea, through which at least $3.4 trillion of annual trade passes.