US-LED ARMADA HOLDS WAR GAMES IN PH SEA
TOKYO— Two US aircraft carriers with around 150 fighter jets are conducting “complex” warfare drills in the Philippine Sea, the US Navy said on Thursday, in a show of force in waters south of China and within striking distance of North Korea.
The drills coincide with the visit to the region of US Vice President Mike Pence, who told a summit of Southeast Asian leaders on Thursday that there was no place for “empire and aggression” in the Indo-Pacific region, a comment that may be widely interpreted as a reference to China’s rise.
The two carriers—the Japan-based USS Ronald Reagan and the USS John C. Stennis deployed from the US West Coast—are carrying out air, surface and antisubmarine warfare operations, the US Seventh Fleet said in a news release.
The US Navy has conducted such operations before, including drills by three carriers last year as tensions with North Korea escalated.
The latest exercises come as denuclearization talks with North Korea show little sign of progress and amid a tit-for-tat trade spat with China.
“Bringing two carrier strike groups together provides unparalleled naval combat power,” said Vice Adm. Phil Sawyer, commander of the US Seventh Fleet.
The USS Reagan also took part in the biggest war games ever staged in and around Japan this month, involving dozens of US and Japanese ships, hundreds of aircraft and thousands of military personnel.
Every nation should prosper
Pence, standing in for US President Donald Trump at the 10-nation summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Singapore, did not mention China in his speech, but stressed that small countries as well as large ones should be allowed to prosper in the Indo-Pacific region.
“Like you, we seek an IndoPacific [region] in which all nations, large and small, can prosper and thrive—secure in our sovereignty, confident in our values, and growing stronger together,” he said.
“We all agree that empire and aggression have no place in the Indo-Pacific [region],” he added.
Pence said the United States had taken action to promote this vision, including steps to spur private investment in infrastructure and a pursuit of trade that was “free, fair and reciprocal.”
He also highlighted the US “pressure campaign” on North Korea, its “commitment to uphold the freedom of the seas and skies” and determination to ensure that Southeast Asian nations are secure in their sovereign borders, on land, and at sea in the digital world.
Pence alluded to Chinese concerns that the United States was seeking to contain its influence by saying, “Our vision for the Indo-Pacific excludes no nation.”
But he added, “It only requires that every nation treat their neighbors with respect, they respect the sovereignty of our nations and the international rules of order.”
Trade and security
The Asean meetings focused on enhanced trade and security in a region of more than 630 million people.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang was at the opening of the summit on Tuesday and sought to assure China’s neighbors over its expanding reach, both economic and military, across the region.
China claims nearly all of the South China Sea but four Asean members—Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam—have rival claims in the strategic waterway.
The UN-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague has ruled for the Philippines in a challenge to China’s sweeping claim.
But China has ignored the ruling and built artificial islands on seven Philippine-claimed reefs in the Spratly archipelago and topped these with military bases from which to project its might across the region.
The territorial disputes have made the region a flash point, and a huge concern for the United States and other countries that rely on the right of passage for shipping.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday that it was crucial that the Asean and China finish work on a code of conduct to help prevent misunderstandings that could lead to conflict.
Slew of issues
Besides South China Sea claimants Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam and host Singapore, the other Asean members are Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand.
The annual Asean Summit includes meetings with various other nations and a slew of bilateral meetings among the leaders.
In Singapore, trade talks followed scores of bilateral meetings among the leaders and talks on other issues such as regional security, how to keep peace in the South China Sea and the crisis over hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya Muslims who have fled to Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar.