By Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio, Reporter
A TOP Philippine security official on Thursday underscored the need to expand regional partnerships to address tensions in the Indo-Pacific, calling for deeper strategic interdependence with Europe to address shared security anxieties.
National Security Adviser Eduardo M. Año said the Indo-Pacific and Europe should work together to help bolster deterrence and approach regional security concerns, noting developments in one region create ripple effects felt across the other.
“The challenges we face are interconnected, we must use the same interconnectedness to confront them,” he said in a keynote at a security forum in Manila. “Our interconnected security also presents to us that instability in one theater ripples across the other.”
He said the Indo-Pacific has emerged as the epicenter of geopolitical and strategic shifts.
The South China Sea, where trillions of dollars of trade passes annually, has emerged as a regional flashpoint, with China claiming almost the entirety of the waterway.
A United Nations-backed tribunal in 2016 voided China’s sweeping claims for being illegal, a ruling that Beijing does not recognize.
“In yet another coercive attempt to advance its interests, a neighbor has bared its plan to build a national nature reserve in the Scarborough Shoal or Bajo de Masinloc in the West Philippine Sea,” Mr. Año said, alluding to China, while using the Filipino name for parts of the South China Sea within Manila’s exclusive waters.
“Such attempts tell the world that respect for international law and rule-based order is now being put to the side to give way to self-serving and coercive domestic laws,” he added.
Beijing last week approved a plan to establish a national nature reserve in Scarborough Shoal, which lies just 222 kilometers off the coast of Luzon but almost 900 kilometers from China’s Hainan Island.
China’s State Council said the nature reserve is an important measure to maintain the “diversity, stability and sustainability of the natural ecosystem” of the maritime feature.
The reserve will cover more than 3,500 hectares at Huangyan Island, the Chinese name for Scarborough Shoal, with its coral reef ecosystem as the main protection target, according to China’s National Forestry and Grassland Administration.
Mr. Año said that coercive acts to gain strategic advantages in the Indo-Pacific have begun to emerge in other regions, like Europe.
“As the global fulcrum of power constantly shifts, similar challenges have emerged in evolving dimensions,” he said. “Some of these threats move beyond conventional warfare. They are now being waged asymmetrically, tending to be irregular but systematic.”
The Philippines has repeatedly accused China of conducting what is described as “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive” activities in the South China Sea, while Beijing maintains its actions are legitimate measures to defend its sovereignty.
“Asymmetric threats demand symmetric unity and systematic actions,” Mr. Año said. “Solidarity, burden-sharing and innovation are indeed crucial to maintaining deterrence and stability.”
“There are critical areas of cooperation in which we can frame and fortify our partnerships,” he added, referring to expanded defense funding schemes from Europe and diversifying supply chain ties to reduce trade coercion.
The Philippines, already bound by military agreements with the United States, Japan and Australia, is pursuing closer security ties with allies amid tensions with China over disputed features in the South China Sea.
Defense Secretary Gilberto C. Teodoro, Jr. earlier said the United Kingdom has expressed its interest to enter into a defense pact with the Philippines. If talks proceed, the UK would be the second European country after France to pursue such a deal with Manila.
Security cooperation with allies soared under President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., who has taken a firmer stance against Beijing’s sweeping maritime claims compared with his predecessor.
He also said that European naval deployments to the South China Sea contribute to improving the security landscape in the disputed waterway, demonstrating the effectiveness of expanded defense cooperation.
Meanwhile, the US and Australian navies held maritime drills in the disputed waterway on Sept.15 to 16, in an exercise the US Indo-Pacific Command described as in support of a “free and open” Indo-Pacific.
The exercise involved the US guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey and Australian Navy frigate HMAS Ballarat, which conducted communication drills and simulated fire rehearsals while sailing in the South China Sea.
“The US Navy regularly trains alongside our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region as a demonstration of our shared commitment to international law and a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement.
The joint naval drills came on the heels of a trilateral exercise with the Philippines, Japan ,and the US in the contested waterway last week in response to heightened tensions.
Manila has increasingly leaned on multinational cooperation to shore up its maritime defenses and improve interoperability with allies amid increasing Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea.