News
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USS Ronald Reagan now underway on patrol amid uncertainty in Asia
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan – The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan departed its Yokosuka homeport Tuesday for a scheduled patrol of the Asia-Pacific region, amid concerns about North Korea and questions about how the White House will address China’s claims to the South China Sea. The roughly 5,000 sailors assigned to the ship and its embarked air wing departed a…
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Aid with no strings attached?
Last Friday the newly appointed secretary of foreign affairs, Alan Peter Cayetano, made this statement with regard to foreign aid: “We will not accept aid from any country if there are strings attached, if there are conditions, because we are an independent nation, and we have an independent foreign policy.” This statement echoes the Duterte administration’s recent announcement that it…
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OPINION: Foreign secretary, envoy belie Duterte account of Xi’s alleged threat of war
Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said he has been in all the bilateral meetings between President Duterte and China’s President Xi Jinping and he has not witnessed any threat of war uttered by the Chinese President. Philippine Ambassador to China Chito Sta. Romana, who has worked and lived in China as a journalist before he was recruited to the foreign…
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‘Philippines can bring China war threat before UN’
MANILA, Philippines – Supreme Court (SC) Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio has advised the Duterte government to elevate to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) Chinese President Xi Jinping’s threat of war against the Philippines should the latter insist on drilling for oil in the disputed South China Sea, or the West Philippine Sea. “The…
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PH urged to take China war threat to UN
President Rodrigo Duterte should take China to the United Nations (UN) for threatening the Philippines with war if it drills for oil in an area in the West Philippine Sea that has already been declared within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said on Saturday. The world body “outlaws the use or threat of force”…
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JUSTICE CARPIO: ‘PH can sue China over war threat’
MANILA can file another case against Beijing before a United Nations tribunal for threatening war against the Philippines over the dispute in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said on Saturday. In a statement, Carpio said the Philippine government can run to the UN tribunal under the United Nations Convention on the Law of…
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China deploys HQ-9 missiles in north of S. China Sea- Israel
WASHINGTON – China has deployed HQ-9 surface-to-air missiles on Hainan Island in the northern part of the South China Sea, an Israeli satellite imagery company has learned, citing analysis of recently captured images. Amid concern about Beijing’s militarization and island building in disputed areas of the South China Sea, the observation that “China is apparently beginning to build a no-fly…
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Will the Pentagon Respond to Chinese Media Reports of Rockets in the South China Sea?
A Chinese state-run Defense Times newspaper has said Norinco CS/AR-1 55mm anti-frogman rocket launcher defense systems with the capability to discover, identify and attack enemy combat divers had been installed on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands. While Pentagon officials did not wish to specifically comment on this report, saying they do not discuss intelligence matters, officials are clear…
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Cayetano wary of ‘legally binding’ rules in South China Sea
SUMMARY MANILA, Philippines – Newly appointed Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano on Friday, May 19, said he is wary of having a “legally binding” Code of Conduct (COC) in the disputed South China Sea. In his first interview with reporters at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Cayetano said he prefers the COC to first be a non-legally binding “gentleman’s…
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Adrift in the South China Sea: The High Cost of Stopping Freedom of Navigation Operations
On May 10, seven Republican and Democratic senators sent a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump urging his administration to resume the United States’ freedom of navigation operations, or FONOPs, in the South China Sea. The timing of the bipartisan letter was striking. Senior lawmakers chose a moment when Washington was consumed by a number of political crises, including the…
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ASEAN Summit’s China Tilt Portends a New World Order
MIAMI: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations marked the 50th anniversary of its foundation in April with fanfare – celebrating its mission of “one vision, one identity, one community” in Manila with the habitual group photo of members crossing their arms across their chests to link hands with the representatives next to them, mimicking their organization’s emblem of rice stocks…
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China plays the North Korea nuclear card
Beijing trades promises to help for U.S. acceptance of its Western Pacific hegemony The provocative actions by North Korea over the past three months since President Trump took office should not come as a surprise. In his campaign for the presidency, candidate Donald Trump repeatedly criticized the Obama administration for failing to take stronger action against China’s illegal actions in…