Japan, US And Philippines Hold First Trilateral Maritime Exercises

Nimitz-class US Navy aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson transits in the Philippine Sea/ANTARA

JAKARTA - Japan's coast guard troops, the United States and the Philippines held a joint exercise in the South China Sea, off the coast of the western Batahan Peninsula in Manila, as part of the first trilateral maritime exercise that began last week. As part of the scenario shown to journalists, a number of coast guard members were trained to deal with armed attacks on ships suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction. Philippine coast guard officials quoted from Kyodo-OANA as saying the three countries need to step up maritime cooperation involving search and rescue operations and to deal with disturbances in water areas. Maritime exercises were carried out by the three countries as China further expanded its maritime activity in the South China Sea region. The trilateral exercise began when the US and its main ally, Japan, stepped up cooperation to help Southeast Asian countries improve their coast guard capabilities. The US Coast Guard lowered the 127-meter long speedboat in full-week drills which began on Thursday last week, while the Japanese Coast Guard lowered the 150-meter-long Akatsushima ship. The exercise also involved four Philippine coast guard vessels, two of which were multi-play response vessels Manila obtained from Tokyo as part of a project to improve the country's maritime capabilities. The South China Sea is an important trade route that is a struggle between China, the Philippines and several other Southeast Asian countries.