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Upbeat talks this month between China and the Philippines after a maritime flare-up should improve a relationship that is considered pivotal to the broader, stickier South China Sea sovereignty dispute, analysts believe. On May 21, the two nations held their sixth Bilateral Consultation Mechanism on the South China Sea, a waterway over which both dispute…
Relations Between China, Philippines Seen Smoothing After Upbeat Talks
28 May 2021
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TAIPEI, TAIWAN
Upbeat talks this month between China and the Philippines after a maritime flare-up should improve a relationship that is considered pivotal to the broader, stickier South China Sea sovereignty dispute, analysts believe.
On May 21, the two nations held their sixth Bilateral Consultation Mechanism on the South China Sea, a waterway over which both dispute sovereignty. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, created the process in 2016 to manage differences.
Officials in Manila loudly protested in March and April the mooring of 220 Chinese fishing vessels at Whitsun Reef, a contested feature in the South China Sea’s Spratly Islands.
Handout Philippine Coast Guard
The Philippine Coast Guard said Wednesday that it planned to upgrade its station on Pag-asa (Thitu), an island in the South China Sea, to improve monitoring in contested waters where Manila has complained about incursions by hundreds of Chinese ships.
Adm. George Ursabia Jr., the head of the coast guard (PCG), visited Pag-asa on Tuesday as part of a move by Manila to assert sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea, a section of the South China Sea that falls within the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
“There’s a plan to further improve the PCG station in Pag-asa for monitoring purposes, especially for maritime safety and search and rescue,” Commodore Armando Balilo told reporters on Wednesday. “It’s also for our fishermen.”