MANILA: The Philippines launched on Wednesday two days of joint sea and air exercises with the United States, Canada and Australia, a joint statement said, as Beijing presses its territorial claim over the South China Sea.
The maneuvers will be held “within the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone” and showcase “our collective commitment to strengthen regional and international cooperation in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific,” top military officials of the four nations said.
The exercises come as China’s saber-rattling toward Taiwan and over the South China Sea fuels fears of a potential conflict that could drag in the United States.
Beijing claims most of the strategic South China Sea, dismissing an international tribunal ruling that its claims were without basis.
Manila held separate naval exercises in the South China Sea last week, first with the United States and then with Japan two days later.
A joint coast guard exercise is also scheduled off Manila Bay on Friday between the Philippines and Vietnam.
The Philippines has a mutual defense treaty with the United States and signed a treaty with Japan last month that will allow the deployment of troops on each other’s territory.
The “multilateral maritime cooperative activity” will be the first as a group by the four nations and involve naval and air force units, a Filipino military spokesman told AFP.
“The naval and air force units of participating nations will operate together enhancing cooperation and inter-operability between our armed forces,” said the joint statement, which did not name the participating vessels and military units.
“Australia, Canada, the Philippines and the United States uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight, other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace, as well as respect for maritime rights under international law, as reflected in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.”
Philippines holds joint patrols with US, Canada, Australia
https://arab.news/43vfk
Philippines holds joint patrols with US, Canada, Australia
- The maneuvers will be held ‘within the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone’
- Exercises come amid China’s saber-rattling toward Taiwan and over the South China
18 killed in central Myanmar airstrike
- Two bombs were dropped on Tabayin township in Sagaing region
- A rescue worker who arrived on the scene 15 minutes after the strike said seven people were killed on the spot
TABAYIN, Myanmar: Eighteen people were killed in an airstrike on a town in central Myanmar, according to a local official, a rescue worker and two residents who spoke to AFP on Saturday.
Myanmar has been rocked by civil war since the military snatched power in a 2021 coup, and its battles with numerous anti-coup fighters have brought frequent airstrikes that often kill civilians.
Two bombs were dropped on Tabayin township in Sagaing region on Friday evening, with one hitting a busy teashop, according to a local administration official.
He told AFP that 18 people were killed and 20 were wounded in the attacks.
“Deaths were high at the teashop as it was crowded time,” he said. All of the sources who spoke to AFP requested anonymity for their protection.
A rescue worker who arrived on the scene 15 minutes after the strike said seven people were killed on the spot and 11 others died later at hospital.
The teashop — a traditional social hub in Myanmar — and around a dozen houses nearby were “totally destroyed,” he said.
A survivor said he was watching a televised boxing match in the teashop when the bomb hit.
“As soon as I heard aircraft fly over, I got my body to the ground,” he said, adding that the sound from the blast was deafening.
“I saw a big fire over my head... I was lucky, I returned home after that.”
A junta spokesman did not answer a call from an AFP reporter.
Funerals for those killed were held on Saturday, with some victims’ faces covered by towels as they had been rendered unrecognizable, a local resident said.
“I feel very sad because I knew some of them very well,” she said.
A junta airstrike in Sagaing in May killed 22 people, including 20 children, despite a purported ceasefire called after a devastating earthquake hit Myanmar.
