American forces are ready with a “range of options” to deal with increasing acts of aggression in the disputed South China Sea if ordered to carry them out jointly and after consultations with treaty ally the Philippines, a U.S. admiral said on Thursday.
U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) chief Admiral Samuel Paparo, who heads the biggest number of combat forces outside the U.S. mainland, refused to provide details of the contingency options.
Adm. Paparo’s comments came when asked at a news conference what the longtime treaty allies could do to deal with China’s so-called gray-zone tactics in the disputed waters.
Gray-zone tactics refer to types of assault, like water cannon fire and the blocking and ramming of rival ships in the disputed waters, that are under the threshold of an actual armed attack and would not allow the Philippines to invoke its 1951 Mutual Defence Treaty with the U.S. The treaty obligates either country to help the other in case of an armed external attack.
“We certainly have prepared a range of options and USINDOPACOM stands ready, if so called, after consultations in accordance with the treaty to execute those shoulder to shoulder with our ally,” Adm. Paparo said.
Detailing those U.S. military options would allow “the potential adversary” to “build a countermeasure to those,” he said.
Adm. Paparo held a joint news conference with Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Romero Brawner Jr., after both led an annual meeting in the northern Philippine mountain city of Baguio to discuss security challenges and military plans. They include the Balikatan (shoulder to shoulder) — the treaty allies’ largest combat exercises — which in April involved more than 16,000 American and Filipinos forces and were partly staged in the South China Sea.
In response to a question, Adm. Paparo repeated that the U.S. military is open, after treaty consultations with the Philippines, to escorting Philippine ships in the South China Sea amid a spike in hostilities between Beijing and Manila in the disputed waters.
Such a prospect would risk putting U.S. Navy ships in direct collisions with those of China.
Washington and Beijing have been on a collision course over China’s increasingly assertive actions to defend its territorial claims in the South China Sea, and Beijing’s stated goal of annexing Taiwan, by force if necessary.
Gen. Brawner said the Philippines could still fend for itself in the disputed waters, where hostilities with the Chinese coast guard, navy and suspected militia ships have alarmingly spiked since last year.
Last resort
“If we exhaust all the options and nothing works, then that’s the time we can ask for help,” Gen. Brawner told presspersons. When Filipino forces in the disputed waters “are at the verge of dying,” because food supplies were being blocked by Chinese forces, “then that is the time that we are going to seek the help of the United States,” Gen. Brawner said, but added that “we still have a lot of options.”
China has angered the Philippines by repeatedly harassing its navy and coast guard ships with powerful water cannons, a military-grade laser, blocking movements and other dangerous maneuvers in the high seas near two disputed South China Sea shoals. They have led to minor collisions that have injured several Filipino navy personnel and damaged supply boats.
Published - August 30, 2024 07:54 am IST
