Philippines, US hold maritime drills in South China Sea
The Philippine military says the activity saw navy and coast guard naval and air assets deployed on Wednesday.
Washington dispatched missile destroyer and maritime aircraft as part of the exercise.
The Philippine military chief issued a statement saying that the maritime engagements demonstrate a "commitment to maintaining a free, open and secure Indo-Pacific."
The drills come as the administration of US President Donald Trump steps up its efforts to deter China. Manila and Beijing have been locked in a longstanding dispute over the South China Sea.
Meanwhile, the Philippines agreed to a US proposal to construct two new boat maintenance facilities in Palawan Province, adjacent to the disputed waters.
In a statement on Wednesday, the US Embassy in Manila said the move will provide repair and maintenance capabilities for several small Philippine military watercraft.
This comes after an incident in May, when Manila said a Chinese government ship sideswiped one of its research vessels and hit it with a water cannon. Beijing blamed the Philippine side for the incident.
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Japan Times
5 hours ago
- Japan Times
As China advances and the U.S. retreats, Japan-India ties grow stronger
At a summit in Washington earlier this month, foreign ministers from 'the Quad' nations of Australia, India, Japan and the U.S. agreed to work together to ensure a stable supply of critical minerals and released the following joint statement: 'We are committed to a region where all countries are free from coercion and strongly oppose any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion.' The Quad diplomats were, of course, referring to China's growing economic and military ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region and its gray-zone threats in the South China and East China seas. But 'coercion' is also an accurate description of U.S. President Donald Trump's aggressive trade policies in the region and insistence, as with NATO in Europe, that the nations of the Indo-Pacific increase their military spending and take more responsibility for their own defense. In this environment, bilateral India-Japan relations are more important than ever. Located on two ends of the Indo-Pacific region, India and Japan are pivotal to shaping a stable and viable counterweight to Chinese ambitions and the volatility of Trump's second term. Both countries possess a strategic heft that makes them invaluable to any Indo-Pacific strategy and have a record of success in regional coalition building and strategic autonomy to advance their own shared interests, whether in the Indo-Pacific or Southeast Asia. India-Japan relations have a nuanced history, including collaboration between Japanese forces and the Indian National Army, an Indian nationalist military force allied with Tokyo, in World War II. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's first articulation of the 'Indo-Pacific' took place in New Delhi in a speech to the Indian Parliament on the 'Confluence of the Two Seas' in 2007, when he spoke of how 'the Pacific and Indian Oceans are now bringing about a dynamic coupling as seas of freedom and prosperity.' In addition to the Quad, both Japan and India are members of a clutch of ASEAN-led regional bodies, the Group of 20 and the Group of Four, which is seeking a seat in a reformed U.N. Security Council. In addition to forming the Quad in 2007, India and Japan's contemporary history is built on a robust relationship anchored in the 2011 India-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership of 2014. These partnerships sprung from three significant events a decade earlier. First, after years of investing heavily in China, the country's 2005 anti-Japanese riots led to a shift of focus toward India. Second, given Japan's special postwar relationship with the U.S., the Indo-U.S. Civil Nuclear Agreement, announced in July 2005, was necessary for the growth of ties with India. And third, the arrival in Japan of more outward-looking prime ministers like Junichiro Koizumi (2001-2006) and Shinzo Abe (2012-2020) led to deeper diplomatic relations. Moreover, Japan has played a significant role in India's development with nearly $60 billion worth of Official Development Assistance loans, grants and technical cooperation since 2000. This includes around $2 billion for Northeast India through which Japan seeks to forge links to Southeast Asia, where it not only provides oda, but its foreign direct investment is double that of China. Japanese money has helped build the Delhi and Chennai Metros, the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and other roads, bridges and bypasses. Another prestige project Japan is undertaking is the high-speed rail corridor between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. Indeed, FDI from Japan has increased steadily and it is now the fourth-largest investor in the country. Military cooperation is also increasing. In 2004, the Indian, U.S. and Japanese navies came together to provide humanitarian assistance after the devastation caused by the Indian Ocean tsunami. In 2007, at the suggestion of Abe, the Quad was formed. That same year, Japan began to participate in the Indo-U.S. Malabar naval exercises. Japan's Self-Defense Forces have now been participating in it regularly since 2014 after it developed a sharper Indo-Pacific focus. Greater defense cooperation makes sense. India's entire border with China is disputed and remains unsettled — largely due to Chinese mendacity. Today, a rising China flexes its muscles and prioritizes national security; it rubs up against Japan in the Senkaku Islands and its neighbors in the East and South China seas, as well as the Himalayas. Meanwhile, the first Trump administration sounded a warning bell for Japan, signaling a more transactional relationship with the U.S. As a result, in December 2022 Japan announced that it would double its defense expenditure to 2% of gross domestic product and also acquire military capabilities it had previously avoided, such as long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles. It also announced plans to sharply enhance its cybercapabilities, satellites and unmanned aerial- and maritime-systems to support counterstrikes. Structural changes were made to the higher command of the Japanese military and it reached out to the U.K. and Australia for defense-enhanced ties. January 2023 also saw the first time Indian fighter aircraft landed in Japan for a joint military exercise, Veer Guardian. India remains leery of military alliances, but in May Tokyo and New Delhi agreed to organize a new defense cooperation consultation body, and there is considerable scope for bilateral ties in that area. Though both collaborate with the U.S. and see it as a vital balancer of China in terms of security, they also need to hedge against Trump's mercurial ways. In the past, India and Japan have made attempts to work together in areas like long-range amphibious aircraft. New Delhi had at one time also sought information on possibly making Japan's Soryu-class submarines in India but, for a variety of reasons, no deal materialized. Currently, there is an important agreement between Japan and India to transfer and co-develop advanced naval stealth technologies such as the Unified Complex Radio Antenna mast for warships and submarines. The two countries also have an agreement to jointly develop an advanced underwater surveillance system and other maritime technology to enhance their deterrence capacity in the Pacific and Indian oceans. The potential for expanding joint production of defense equipment that would leverage Japan's advanced technology with India's manufacturing capacity has barely been touched. Another focus, which overlaps the Quad relationship, is building economic resilience through supply-chain diversification in areas like semiconductors and rare earths. There is considerable scope to deepen their Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement by boosting trade and investment that will counter U.S. tariff threats and Chinese economic coercion. The two also need to put more energy into their 2017 idea of creating an Asia-Africa growth corridor. Crucial to stronger India-Japan ties are the high-level 'two-plus-two' meetings between the nations' defense and foreign ministers, the last of which took place last August in New Delhi. At that meeting the two sides agreed to enhance cooperation 'to reflect contemporary priorities and be responsive to contemporary security challenges facing them.' Those same challenges — emanating from both Beijing and Washington — will no doubt be high on the agenda next month during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's scheduled visit to Japan. Manoj Joshi, a journalist and distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, is former political editor of The Times of India and the author, most recently, of 'Understanding the India-China Border: The Enduring Threat of War in High Himalaya' (2022).
NHK
a day ago
- NHK
China's military moves in Indo-Pacific raise concern
Questions about the security situation in the Indo-Pacific are swirling due to moves by the Chinese military. A former senior advisor to the previous US secretary of defense tells NHK World what he thinks is driving Beijing's recent actions.
Japan Times
2 days ago
- Japan Times
Tariff-free aircraft trade in U.S.-EU deal fostered through industry-wide effort
A provisional deal between the United States and European Union to exempt aircraft from tariffs avoids a potential threat to jet production and deliveries in both regions, and caps months of uncharacteristic unity among plane-making rivals. The framework deal, announced Sunday, will see the U.S. impose a 15% import tariff on most EU goods but offer protection for industries including aerospace, with zero-for-zero tariffs on aircraft and parts, European officials said. Following intense lobbying, it spares an industry that is often a lightning rod for trade tensions, with the World Trade Organization tested to its limits by a 17-year dispute over Airbus and Boeing subsidies before a truce in 2021. Aircraft, engines, spare parts and components from landing gear to seats had faced potentially higher costs, and some jet deliveries looked set to be disrupted by the threatened U.S. tariffs that would have compounded supply chain problems. Still, questions remain over detailed implementation of the deal and whether it will extend to other components like space. "We are just waiting until we see these things written down," one European industry official said. Airbus said it had taken note of the deal. "A stable and predictable trade environment is essential for our highly integrated global aerospace industry," it said. Boeing had no immediate comment. United campaign Sunday's agreement follows a discreet and unusually united campaign to revert to a landmark 1979 agreement between over 30 nations that mandated duty-free trading in civil aircraft. An industry that only a few years earlier had torn itself apart over trade disputes on subsidies involving Airbus and Boeing found itself in lockstep on both sides of the Atlantic. But two terms from the industry's previous trade handbook were quietly dropped, sources said: multilateral and WTO. The 1979 Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft that eliminated tariffs on aircraft and parts is one of a handful of industry-specific deals that survived from an earlier round of trade talks when the World Trade Organization opened in 1995. U.S. President Donald Trump, who once called the WTO "the single worst trade deal ever made," appears to prefer bilateral deals over broad alliances from trade to security, and "multilateralism" is one of the biggest bugbears of his America First philosophy. Lobbying was intense from all quarters, but industry sources highlighted a discreet but influential role played by GE Aerospace CEO Larry Culp. Culp said in April he had advocated reestablishing the tariff-free regime for the aerospace industry during a meeting with Trump at the White House. He said the position was "understood" by the administration, stressing that the zero-duty regime had helped the U.S. aerospace industry reach a $75 billion annual trade surplus. Industry officials also argued aerospace was interconnected and that U.S. tariffs would not favor Boeing at the expense of its European rival Airbus, but merely hurt everyone. GE did not have any immediate comment on the new deal. In May, Trump reached a trade accord with the U.K. that tested the ground by restoring duty-free trading in jet engines. 'Template' for talks After the U.S.-U.K. trade deal, aerospace industry officials urged the White House to use it as a template for future trade negotiations. GE's Culp and Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian mentioned the deal as a template to follow. On Monday, Delta hailed the EU trade deal for preserving "a zero-tariff environment" on aircraft and component parts. The U.S. airline said the trade agreement would "help protect and continue to grow the role of air travel as a driver of U.S. economic growth, innovation, and high-quality jobs." The agreement stops short of restoring the whole 1979 agreement and focuses on the largest aerospace markets. Boeing typically delivers 17% of its jets to Europe while Airbus delivers some 12% to the United States, some of which are assembled locally, according to Boeing and Cirium data. But Europe and the U.S. are each other's largest market for aircraft components, according to French industry lobby Gifas. Although the agreement relieves one significant source of pressure, there are concerns that Boeing, Airbus and their suppliers could still be caught up indirectly in trade tensions between Washington and China as they seek to do business there. Aerospace companies are also awaiting findings from an ongoing U.S. trade investigation into aerospace. In May, the U.S. Commerce Department launched a "Section 232" national security investigation into imports of commercial aircraft, jet engines and parts that could form the basis for tariffs or quotas. U.S. airlines who met the department say much of the focus has been on China and concerns over potential further disruption to key supplies, on top of rare earths and magnets. It could also be used to impose new tariffs on Brazil — home to Embraer, for whose regional jets there are few alternatives. U.S. carriers currently face 50% tariffs on imports of the jets, which Embraer says could add $9 million per plane. Alaska Air, which is scheduled to receive three jets from the Brazilian plane-maker early next year, said last week it could even consider deferring the aircraft deliveries.
