MANILA (Reuters): The United States stands with the Philippines, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday, rejecting what he described as China's "destabilizing plans" for a disputed atoll in the South China Sea.
"Beijing claiming Scarborough Reef as a nature preserve is yet another coercive attempt to advance sweeping territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea at the expense of its neighbors," Rubio said in a statement.
Filipino fishermen fear Beijing's plan to create the nature reserve could make it harder for them to operate in the atoll, which is under the constant watch of Chinese vessels.
Scarborough Shoal lies within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone but has been under Beijing's control since 2012. China claims almost all the South China Sea - a waterway carrying more than $3 trillion of annual commerce - despite overlapping claims by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
Rubio said China's actions continued to undermine regional stability, calling on Beijing to abide by the Arbitral Tribunal's unanimous 2016 decision that China had unlawfully prevented Filipino fishermen from engaging in traditional fishing at Scarborough Reef.
The Philippines said on Saturday it had sailed with the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and Japan's navy off islands in Zambales province, whose coast is around 120 nautical miles from Scarborough Shoal.
Chinese state media Global Times reported on Friday that Manila had held a "joint patrol" in the South China Sea with unnamed countries outside the region.
(Reporting by Ryan Patrick Jones and Bhargav Acharya in Toronto; Additional reporting by Mikhail Flores in Manila; Editing by Caitlin Webber and William Mallard) - Reuters
