Bangkok, Aug 5 (EFE).- The Philippines and Vietnam kicked off their first joint coast guard drills on Monday in the backdrop of growing territorial tensions with Beijing in the South China Sea.
Until Friday, the Philippine and Vietnamese coast guards will carry out search and rescue exercises as well as training in the prevention of fires and explosions in the waters of Manila Bay.
The maneuvers are aimed at promoting mutual understanding and boosting cooperation between the two coast guards, the commandant of the Philippine Coast Guard, Admiral Ronnie Gavan, said in a statement posted on social media.
The Vietnamese patrol ship CSB 8002, with 80 crew members on board, arrived on Monday to take part in the exercises, which is an outcome of the memorandum of understanding on maritime cooperation signed at the end of January during a visit to Hanoi by the Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and Gavan.
The drills come amid an escalating conflict between Manila and Beijing due to sovereignty claims over a handful of islands and shoals in the South China Sea, an area through which 30 percent of global maritime trade passes and which is rich in oil and gas deposits.
One of the most tense episodes in these troubled waters occurred on June 17, when the China Coast Guard surrounded and boarded a Philippine ship on a resupply mission to Second Thomas Shoal – where Manila has had troops stationed on a stranded ship since 1999 – and which resulted in one Filipino being injured.
Manila and Beijing also dispute sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal, near the Philippine island of Luzon, and several of the Spratly Islands, where Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan also have claims.
Vietnam and China also have territorial tensions over Paracel Islands, which are claimed by both countries. EFE
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