China's move to turn the South China Sea (SCS), the channel for the transit of global trade worth $5 trillion, into its domestic waterways have begun to galvanise the countervailing forces opposed to the blatant violation of the global maritime conventions. As a first, the US Navy would now jointly patrol the SCS with the Philippines Navy. Indianmandarins understands that this move has to be carried further by joint patrolling of the SCS by the US Navy in collaboration with Japanese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Malaysian Navies.These collaborations may gather pace in months to come, if not weeks.
It looks like China may have miscalculated about the global response to turning the SCS into its backyard even as it aggressively went on dredging up the reefs and toll and turned them into military staging points to back up its claims on the SCS. The US onThursday disclosed for the first time that American ships have started conducting joint patrols with the Philippines in the South China Sea, a somewhat rare move not done with many other partners in the region.
At the same time, Defence Secretary Ash Carter announced at a joint news conference with Philippine Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmi that the United States will be keeping nearly 300 troops, including Air Force commandos armed with combat aircraft and helicopters, in the Philippines through the end of the month.
It's part of a military build-up sure to call off Beijing's bluff in the South China Sea.
The US will also begin sending forces on increased rotations into the Philippines, it was disclosed, to beef up training and to support increased military operations in the region.
Further, to check China in the Indian Ocean, India and the US have agreed in principle to sign up the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), which was the highlight of U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter's three-day visit to India last week. After Carter's meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the US defence secretary and his Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar announced initiatives to strengthen the growing strategic partnership.
"Secretary Carter and I agreed in principle to conclude a Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in the coming months," Mr. Parrikar said. "The draft of LEMOA will be ready in a month, if not weeks."
The LEMOA would facilitate militaries of the two countries to avail of each-other' facilities and help in patrolling of the SCS and the Indian Ocean in a more effective way. Parrikar is expected to be in Beijing next week and will surely be intimated of Chinese concerns for India's support to 'insurgencies' in the SCS as well as its intention to sign up the LEMOA with the US.
By M K Shukla (Editor)
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US, Philippine begin joint patrolling of SCS
By IndianMandarins - 2016-04-17 00:27:13
China's move to turn the South China Sea (SCS), the channel for the transit of global trade worth $5 trillion, into its domestic waterways have begun to galvanise the countervailing forces opposed to the blatant violation of the global maritime conventions. As a first, the US Navy would now jointly patrol the SCS with the Philippines Navy. Indianmandarins understands that this move has to be carried further by joint patrolling of the SCS by the US Navy in collaboration with Japanese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Malaysian Navies.These collaborations may gather pace in months to come, if not weeks.
It looks like China may have miscalculated about the global response to turning the SCS into its backyard even as it aggressively went on dredging up the reefs and toll and turned them into military staging points to back up its claims on the SCS. The US onThursday disclosed for the first time that American ships have started conducting joint patrols with the Philippines in the South China Sea, a somewhat rare move not done with many other partners in the region.
At the same time, Defence Secretary Ash Carter announced at a joint news conference with Philippine Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmi that the United States will be keeping nearly 300 troops, including Air Force commandos armed with combat aircraft and helicopters, in the Philippines through the end of the month.
It's part of a military build-up sure to call off Beijing's bluff in the South China Sea.
The US will also begin sending forces on increased rotations into the Philippines, it was disclosed, to beef up training and to support increased military operations in the region.
Further, to check China in the Indian Ocean, India and the US have agreed in principle to sign up the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), which was the highlight of U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter's three-day visit to India last week. After Carter's meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the US defence secretary and his Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar announced initiatives to strengthen the growing strategic partnership.
"Secretary Carter and I agreed in principle to conclude a Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in the coming months," Mr. Parrikar said. "The draft of LEMOA will be ready in a month, if not weeks."
The LEMOA would facilitate militaries of the two countries to avail of each-other' facilities and help in patrolling of the SCS and the Indian Ocean in a more effective way. Parrikar is expected to be in Beijing next week and will surely be intimated of Chinese concerns for India's support to 'insurgencies' in the SCS as well as its intention to sign up the LEMOA with the US.
By M K Shukla (Editor)
