Asean coast guard forum to be held in Davao amid West PH Sea tensions

This handout photo taken on December 2, 2023 and released on December 3 by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) shows an aerial view of Chinese vessels gathered by Whitsun Reef, around 320 kilometers (200 miles) west of Palawan Island, in disputed waters of the South China Sea. FILE PHOTO/Agence France-Presse

MANILA, Philippines — The coast guards of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will conduct a three-day forum in Davao City amid rising tensions in the West Philippine Sea.

Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Rear Admiral Armando Balilo on Monday said the Asian Coast Guard forum, which will run from June 5 to June 8, will tackle ways to prevent illegal activities like drug trafficking, human smuggling, illegal fishing, piracy, as well as the entry of weapons of mass destruction.

The Asean consists of member countries namely the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Thailand.

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Balilo said that the forum seeks to broaden the cooperation of the entire Asean regarding the South China Sea situation, where some member countries, including the Philippines, lay claim to some of the islets inside the vast sea.

“This will serve as a way for the entire Asean region to have a single voice and call about the various challenges about the freedom of navigation [in the region],” Balilo said in a statement.

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Apart from China and the Philippines, other countries such as Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam are also claimants of the Spratly Islands inside the South China Sea.

Nine maritime features of Spratly inside the western section of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone are locally known as the Kalayaan Island Group.

Despite the overlapping claims, Beijing asserts sovereignty in almost the entire South China Sea, including the West Philippine Sea, even if such a claim has been effectively invalidated by a July 2016 international tribunal ruling from a case filed by Manila in 2013.

Beijing refuses to acknowledge this ruling, causing tensions with claimant countries like the Philippines and Vietnam.

Former Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Emmanuel Bautista said that while several of its western allies supported the Philippines amid China’s aggressive acts, no other Asean member has expressed similar sentiments so far.