MANILA (Reuters): The Philippines held maritime drills with the United States and Japan inside its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, its military said on Friday evening, two days after a maritime confrontation with Beijing around a disputed shoal.
The drills, which brought together a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft, Philippine Navy ship BRP Andres Bonifacio and a C-90 small plane, and Japan's Murasame-class destroyer JS Samidare, are the Philippines' latest round of exercises with allies this year in the face of an increasingly assertive China.
The exercises were conducted "in a manner that is consistent with international law, and with due regard for the safety of navigation, and the rights and interests of other states," the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in separate statements.
On Wednesday, the Philippines accused Chinese coast guard vessels of firing water cannons and side-swiping one of its boats on a resupply mission to fishermen at Scarborough Shoal in the contested South China Sea.
Manila also expressed alarm over the presence at the shoal of a Chinese navy vessel which it said blocked and shadowed its coast guard ships, in what it described as a "steep escalation and provocation."
China, which claims almost all of the South China Sea, including Scarborough Shoal, maintains that its actions are lawful.
Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, The Philippines and Vietnam all claim parts of the sea. Tensions have risen amid concern China's expansive claims encroach on their exclusive economic zones (EEZs).
EEZs extend 200 nautical miles (370km) from a country's coast and allow it sovereign rights to explore and exploit the natural resources in the water and on the ocean floor.
China has rejected a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that its claims have no basis under international law.
Sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal has never been established, but the tribunal did rule that China's blockade there violated international law and that the area was a traditional fishing ground used by fishermen of many nationalities.
(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by John Mair and Kate Mayberry) - Reuters
