6 countries hold joint naval drills off Philippines amid tensions with Beijing

Navies from the Philippines, United States and four allies are staging a large-scale exercise off Luzon island.
RFA staff
2024.10.08
6 countries hold joint naval drills off Philippines amid tensions with Beijing Andrew Wener, a U.S. Navy Senior Chief Boatswain’s Mate (top right), and Chief Boatswain’s Mate Francisco Fuentes (top center) provide instruction on a refueling-at-sea aboard the Philippine Navy frigate BRP Jose Riza, as part of Sama Sama 2024, at the Philippine Naval Operating Base in Subic, Philippines, Oct. 8, 2024.
U.S. Navy

The United States and the Philippines are leading a six-nation joint naval exercise now underway off the northern Philippines, amid rising tensions with Beijing in the South China Sea.  

Exercise Sama Sama kicked off on Monday and will run for two weeks – the second such multi-nation drills in recent days. “Sama Sama” means “togetherness” in the Tagalog language. 

The annual drills are “designed to enhance interoperability and strengthen security ties among regional partners,” the U.S. Navy said in a statement announcing the opening of the exercise.

Sama Sama, which involves almost 1,000 naval personnel from Australia, Canada, France, Japan, the U.S. and the Philippines, is taking place in waters off Luzon, the northern main Philippine that faces Taiwan. The United Kingdom has sent observers to the drills.

Just days before, on Sept. 28, four of the partners – Australia, Japan, the Philippines and the U.S. – together with New Zealand, conducted a maritime exercise within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea.

PH-sama-sama2.jpg
U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Todd F. Cimicata (left), Philippine Rear Adm. Jose Ma. Ambrosio Q. Ezpeleta (center), and Philippine Commodore Edward Ike Morada De Sagon listen to remarks during the opening ceremony of Sama Sama 2024, in Subic, Philippines, Oct. 7, 2024. [U.S. Navy]

On the same day, China announced its own air and naval drills around Scarborough Shoal, a reef which Beijing gained de facto control of following a standoff with the Philippines in 2012.

China’s Southern Theater Command criticized the earlier exercise as destabilizing outside interference.

“Some countries outside the region have disrupted the South China Sea and created regional instability,” the Chinese military said.

The command pledged to “resolutely defend China’s sovereignty, security and maritime rights and interests” in the South China Sea.

China, which just observed a lengthy national holiday, had yet to respond to Sama Sama 2024.

‘Not targeted at any country’

The U.S and the Philippines are treaty allies and they conduct joint military drills every year.

The U.S. Navy said in its statement that Sama Sama, now in its eighth iteration, “reflects ​​the spirit of the decades-long partnership between allies in the region.”

“What began as a bilateral event between the United States and the Philippines has grown into a multilateral and multiplatform operation,” it said.

“Working alongside naval vessels and maritime surveillance aircraft, ​​​​specialized teams​, including ​diving and explosive ordnance disposal units​,​​ ​will conduct high-intensity drills focusing on anti-submarine warfare​, ​anti-​surface warfare​, ​anti-​air warfare, and maritime domain awareness.”

Rear Adm. Todd Cimicata, head of the U.S. delegation, told reporters before the launching of the exercise that it was not targeted at any country.

“The intent of these exercises is not to ruffle feathers. It’s tailored for interoperability,” the Reuters news agency quoted him as saying. “Across the gamut, there are people that don’t follow those rules so we have to agree so that we can set those standards.”

China, which claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, has been in a tense standoff with the Philippines over some reefs inside Manila’s EEZ.

Last week, Chinese law enforcement personnel were accused of beating and injuring 10 Vietnamese fishermen near the Paracel archipelago in what Philippine National Security Adviser Eduardo Año described as an “alarming act with no place in international relations.”

A Philippine Navy spokesman, Rear Adm. Roy Vincent Trinidad, told reporters on Tuesday that Philippine authorities “have contingency plans in place” in case similar incidents happen to Filipino fishermen.

Trinidad urged fishermen to continue fishing in the West Philippine Sea, Manila’s  name for South China Sea waters within its EEZ.

The Philippine Navy said it had spotted a total of 190 Chinese vessels, including 37 naval and coast guard vessels, in Philippine waters this week, a slight increase from 178 the week before.

This story was reported by Radio Free Asia, a news service affiliated with BenarNews. Jason Gutierrez for BenarNews in Manila contributed to this story.

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