BEIJING: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has warned the Philippines over the US intermediate-range missile deployment, saying such a move could fuel regional tensions and spark an arms race. The United States deployed its Typhoon missile system to the Philippines as part of joint military drills earlier this year. It was not fired during the exercises, a Philippine military official later said, without giving details on how long it would stay in the country.
China-Philippines relations are now at a crossroads and dialogue and consultations are the right way, Wang told the Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo on Friday during a meeting in Vientiane, the capital of Laos where top diplomats of world powers have gathered ahead of two summits.
Wang said relations between the countries are facing challenges because the Philippines has "repeatedly violated the consensus of both sides and its own commitments”, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement. "If the Philippines introduces the US intermediate-range missile system, it will create tension and confrontation in the region and trigger an arms race, which is completely not in line with the interests and wishes of the Filipino people,” Wang said.
The Philippines’ military and its foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wang’s remarks. China and the Philippines are locked in a confrontation in the South China Sea and their encounters have grown more tense as Beijing presses its claims to disputed shoals in waters within Manila’s its exclusive economic zone.
Wang said China has recently reached a temporary arrangement with the Philippines on the transportation and replenishment of humanitarian supplies to Ren’ai Jiao in order to maintain the stability of the maritime situation, referring to the Second Thomas Shoal. Philippine vessels on Saturday successfully completed their latest mission to the shoal unimpeded, its foreign ministry said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Philippines on Saturday completed unimpeded a resupply trip to its troops at a disputed South China Sea shoal, its foreign ministry said, the first such mission under a new arrangement with China aimed at cooling tensions. The Philippines and China last week announced a "provisional agreement” on Manila’s resupply missions to its contingent of troops on a naval ship grounded on the Second Thomas Shoal, after repeated clashes between vessels that have caused regional concerns about an escalation of hostilities.
The Philippines intentionally immobilized the now rusty former US vessel at the shoal in 1999 in an attempt to claim it as its territory and has since maintained a small rotational troop presence there, infuriating China, which has coast guard stationed in the area. Saturday’s mission involved a civilian vessel, escorted by Philippine coast guard, with no untoward incidents reported, the foreign ministry said. China’s embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the mission.
The Philippines and China both said the agreement would not change their positions on territory. The shoal is within the Philippines’ 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone and located 1,300 km (808 miles) off mainland China, which refers to it as Renai Reef.
In June, a Philippine navy personnel member lost a finger in an incident that Manila described as "intentional, high-speed ramming” by the China coast guard, which said the replenishment ship ignored repeated warnings to leave. China claims almost the entire South China Sea as its territory based on historic maps, a claim an arbitral tribunal in 2016 ruled had no basis under international law. — Reuters