Taiwan to deploy missiles in Spratlys

Taiwan has made known its plan to deploy an advanced air defense missile system in its occupied islet in the hotly contested West Philippine Sea.

As published in the Taiwanese media on Friday, Taiwan Defense Minister Kao Hua-chu said their Coast Guard units deployed on Itu Aba island in the Spratlys now need the Tien Chien I missiles in the area, apparently replacing its 1980s-era Chaparral missiles.

This is Taiwan’s response, the reports said, to its concerns that rival Spratly claimants have been continuously building up their arms in the disputed region.

Taiwanese legislator Lin Yu-fang, who fully supports the plan, said the proposed ground-to-air missile deployment would be legitimate.

Lin cited the ministry’s recent report on the military buildups by Vietnam and other neighboring countries in the area.

Lin said Vietnam has deployed thousands of Marines in the region with the backing of Russian-made SU-27SK and SU-30KM2 fighter jets, in contrast to the Taiwanese Coast Guard deployed at Itu Aba who are only equipped with 20-mm air defense guns.

The Taiwanese legislator also warned that in the event of a flare-up in the region, the Taiwanese Coast Guard could also hardly defend themselves against the Philippines, whose troops are equipped with naval gunboats.

Kao endorsed a proposal passed by the country’s defense committee Wednesday demanding Coast Guard units on Itu Aba and the Pratas islands - claimed by China - be armed with Tien Chien I missiles.

The United States appealed for calm Friday after learning that Taiwan had prepared to deploy missiles in the region over concerns that rival claimants to disputed islands are building up their arms.

“We encourage all claimants to resolve their disputes through peaceful means, in accordance with international law and without resorting to the threat or use of force,” Pentagon spokesman George Little told reporters.

China claims all of the South China Sea, including hundreds of Spratly islands and reefs.

Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei, China, Malaysia and the Philippines claim all or part of the Spratlys, which could lie on top of large oil reserves, thus making the region a possible flashpoint of conflict.

The Taiwanese Coast Guard currently has a 130-strong garrison on Itu Aba, the biggest island in the Spratly archipelago. It has a modern military runway aside from military bunkers and houses.

The second biggest island, Pag-Asa, the center of the Kalayaan Island municipality, is occupied by Filipino troops with civilian residents as well.

A local senior security official, who asked not to be named, earlier warned that the exclusion of Taiwan in all the efforts of claimant-countries to resolve the territorial dispute peacefully, presents a major security debacle to the solution of the problem.

“Without Taiwan’s participation in all these talks, there is always a danger of a shooting war breaking out. Not us, nor Vietnam, Malaysia or Brunei starting it, but the Chinese and Taiwanese forces,” he said.

On the other hand, Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon, elected mayor of the Kalayaan Island municipality in the Spratlys, said Itu Aba is already outside of the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

He said Taiwan’s planned deployment of a missile system on the island is not such a big concern for now.

Bito-onon though admitted he was also alarmed by the development, saying he has been monitoring frequent landings of a Taiwanese C-130 Hercules plane on Itu Aba.

“Maybe the Taiwanese government just wants to boost the morale of their troops while at the same time show its resolve to defend its territorial claim,” Bito-onon said.

If the Taiwanese missile deployment pushes through, Bito-onon said local security forces would now be on the lookout for possible incursions of Taiwanese soldiers in the 47 still unoccupied islets near Itu Aba, all within the country’s EEZ.

The Defense department and the leadership of the Armed Forces’ Western Command (Wescom) declined to comment on the issue.

Wescom has security jurisdiction over the country’s territory in the West Philippine Sea.

A combined Philippine-US naval exercise dubbed Phiblex (amphibious landing exercises) is slated to be held later this month at an undisclosed area in the West Philippine Sea. 

via philstar.com

Philippines hosts first Asean Spratlys meet

The Philippines is pushing for the setup of a “Joint Marine Peace Park” in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), part of its fresh proposals that seek to ease tensions in the region by delineating disputed areas and replacing military forces with civilians representing the various claimant countries.

Manila’s proposals came under scrutiny as it began hosting Thursday a two-day meeting of Southeast Asian maritime experts.

The gathering, the first of its kind, was an attempt by the Philippines to present a unified regional policy in confronting China’s exclusive claim over all the islands in the region.

The meeting was limited to maritime and legal experts from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations(Asean), four members of which lay claims to the sea believed to be rich in oil.

The four claimants from Asean are the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei. The other rival claimants are longtime rivals China and Taiwan.

Not all

The Philippine proposal maintained that not the entire West Philippine Sea is subject to a dispute, but only the Spratly group of islands which are sought by all six claimants, and the Paracel Islands which are being contested by China, Vietnam and Taiwan.

China refers to the strategic body of water as the South China Sea.

The proposed peace park “could be established in the joint cooperation area, or JCA, for the six Spratlys claimant-countries,” according to a paper from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), a copy of which was obtained by the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

“It would be a concrete implementation of the code of conduct (for Spratlys claimants) and a beginning of a more vigorous cooperation in the West Philippine Sea,” the paper said.

It noted that the code “would be specifically applied in the JCA” and “could be designed to prevent accidental military encounters through specific rules of engagement between and among the parties.”

Demilitarized

The DFA paper said the JCA could be “demilitarized,” with police or Coast Guard staff replacing military personnel.

On maritime areas outside the JCA, the report said “joint activities that could be undertaken include search and rescue, oil spill preparedness, marine scientific research, and other conservation projects.”

And to transform the West Philippine Sea from a region of conflict into a so-called zone of peace, freedom, friendship and cooperation, “the disputed areas must be clarified from the nondisputed waters,” the DFA said.

Once the disputed areas are delineated, claimants can decide to withdraw their troops, replace them with civilian forces and undertake joint research projects and disaster drills to boost trust, the proposal added.

For Manila, the disputed areas in the West Philippine Sea are “specific, determinable and measurable.”

These areas can be determined and measured, it said, by making distinctions between “territorial disputes” and “maritime claims,” specifying the geological features being claimed, and applying the rules governing them under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).

In the Asean bloc, the Philippines together with Vietnam has been the most vocal party in the dispute. China, however, prefers bilateral negotiations with each claimant country.

Beijing protest

Two senior Philippine diplomats told The Associated Press (AP) that Beijing had protested the two-day meeting.

Beijing has also questioned why Asean should deal with the disputes as a group when the majority of its members are not claimants, the two diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

One of the diplomats said that if Asean can forge a common stand, the bloc would later try to get China’s concurrence.

A draft statement to be issued after the meeting indicated all the participants were inclined to support the Manila proposal, describing it as “consistent with international law.”

They would urge the claimant countries “to meet among themselves and explore the possibility of defining” the disputed areas for joint projects.

Binay’s doubts

They would endorse the proposal to senior Asean diplomats for political deliberation, according to the draft statement, a copy of which was seen by AP.

Resolving the dispute “may take centuries,” said Vice President Jejomar Binay while talking to reporters after delivering an opening speech to the delegates at the conference.

Binay noted in the speech that the sea—through which more than half of the world’s supertankers pass—has “become a source of tension, which threatens the security” of not only the vital sea lane but also the region and the world.

But segregating the disputed areas would be tough. The Philippines, for example, claims as its own a potentially gas-rich area called the Reed Bank, which lies off the province of Palawan.

China, however, contests that claim, and two Chinese patrol boats tried to drive away a Philippine oil exploration ship from the area in March.

The Philippines protested the incident as one of several intrusions by China into its territorial waters that reignited tensions in the first half of the year. With a report from AP

via globalnation.inquirer.net