Philippines joins US-led maritime exercises in Singapore

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines and maritime forces from 20 countries in the Indo-Pacific region are participating in the United States-led Southeast Asia Cooperation and Training (SEACAT) maritime exercises that promote shared commitments to maritime partnerships, security and stability in Southeast Asia.

The US Indo-Pacific Command said the maritime forces from the 21 Indo-Pacific partner nations, including the US Navy, US inter-agencies and international organizations, kicked off the 20th iteration of the SEACAT in Singapore virtually last Aug. 10.

SEACAT is a multilateral exercise designed to enhance cooperation among Southeast Asian countries and provide mutual support and common goal to address crises, contingencies and illegal activities in the maritime domain using standardized tactics, techniques and procedures.

“In this region, the strength of our partnerships matter and our ability and willingness to work together is paramount,” Vice Admiral Karl Thomas, commander of US 7th Fleet, said.

The exercise scenarios are designed to encourage countries to use maritime forces and enhance understanding of the operational environment, build capacity for humanitarian support missions and uphold international laws and norms.

The 21 participating nations are Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Maldives, New Zealand, Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam.

A maritime operations center in the International Fusion Center in Singapore serves as a centralized hub for crisis coordination and information sharing in the tracking of contracted merchant vessels simulating suspicious vessels of interests throughout Southeast Asian seas.

Countries will work with all available maritime domain awareness (MDA) tools to provide cueing and contact information to another country’s operations center and maritime patrol reconnaissance aircraft or surface assets with the stated goal of enforcing international rules, laws and norms.

“The scenarios are designed to encourage countries to work together through maritime domain awareness assets to better understand operations and adherence to international norms,” said Capt. Tom Ogden, commander, Destroyer Squadron 7.

SEACAT includes 10 ships and more than 400 personnel. US Navy participants include USS Tulsa (LCS 16), staff of DESRON 7, P-8A Poseidon aircraft assigned to Task Force 72, and personnel from Task Forces 73, 76, US 7th Fleet and US Pacific Fleet.

Support for SCS ruling

Meanwhile, a US think tank yesterday said 34 nations are now supporting the verdict on the South China Sea while eight governments have called for the arbitration ruling to be respected and supported.

The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), a part of Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, has updated its tracker of official public stances on the South China Sea arbitration.

Five years after the ruling, the 34 countries have issued generally positive statements noting the verdict, “but (most) have stopped short of calling for the parties to abide by it,” AMTI said.

These are Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Myanmar, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and Vietnam.

“Only two countries, Germany and the United Kingdom, evolved from positively acknowledging the ruling and explicitly calling for it to be respected,” AMTI added.

Aside from Germany and the UK, the Philippines, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and the United States have publicly called for other countries to respect and support the ruling.

On the other hand, China, Montenegro, Pakistan, Russia, Sudan, Syria, Taiwan and Vanuatu have publicly rejected it.

The research group said Russia and Syria moved from neutral statements to rejecting the ruling by an international tribunal in The Hague in favor of the Philippines in the maritime dispute.