Philippine Coast Guard says ship damaged in collision with Chinese vessel



MANILA: The Philippine Coast Guard stated one in every of its ships was broken Tuesday in a collision with a China Coast Guard vessel throughout a resupply mission to Filipino troops on a distant outpost within the South China Sea.
It’s the newest incident in waters round Second Thomas Shoal within the Spratly Islands the place the international locations have contesting maritime claims.
Chinese language coast guard and different vessels undertook “harmful manoeuvres and blocking”, resulting in a collision that resulted in “minor structural harm to the PCG (Philippine Coast Guard) vessel,” Philippine Coast Guard Commodore Jay Tarriela stated in a submit on social media platform X.
The BRP Sindangan, together with a sister ship, had been deployed “to assist” a navy rotation and resupply mission to Second Thomas Shoal, the place Filipino troops are stationed on a grounded Philippine navy vessel.
China’s coast guard stated it “took management measures” in opposition to Philippines ships’ “unlawful intrusion” in waters round Ren’ai Reef in China’s Nansha Islands,” utilizing the Chinese language names for the shoal.
China claims nearly your complete South China Sea, brushing apart competing claims from a number of Southeast Asian nations and a world ruling that declared its stance baseless.
The incident comes a day after Philippine overseas minister Enrique Manalo referred to as on China to “cease harassing us” as he defended Manila’s technique of publicising Chinese language manoeuvres within the South China Sea.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos was equally forthright when he appeared later Monday night at an occasion hosted by an Australian assume tank.
“We will by no means give up even a sq. inch of our territory and our maritime jurisdiction,” he stated on the sidelines of the Asean summit in Melbourne.
The collision was the second such incident since December, when Chinese language ships blasted water cannon at Philippine boats.
These confrontations have been essentially the most intense between Philippine and Chinese language vessels in years, analysts stated on the time, predicting that there can be an escalation in tensions.
Relations between Manila and Beijing have frayed underneath Marcos, who has sought to enhance ties with conventional ally Washington and deepen defence cooperation within the area, whereas additionally pushing again in opposition to Chinese language actions within the South China Sea.
That contrasts with the strategy of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who put aside maritime disputes with Beijing in alternate for guarantees of Chinese language funding.





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