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Latest News in the South China Sea

This year’s naval exercises, will go beyond the Philippines’ territorial waters and into the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, Or What China considers as its territorial waters. While last year’s Balikatan exercise was the largest in terms of involved personnel, this year’s is the largest in terms of scale — and the boldest ever.
More than 16,000 Filipino and American soldiers, including some Australians; a French frigate participating for the first time, in joint missions on land, sea, and missile defense, with observers from 14 countries watching.
As part of these much-awaited drills, the forces will sink a target ship, reclaim an island, and sail in waters confronting the South China Sea. However, more interestingly, the ship that has been singled out as a mock target to be sunk by the Allies is a decommissioned Chinese naval tanker.
This coming May 8, the former BRP Lake Caliraya will be used as a mock target during Manila and Washington’s sinking exercise off Ilocos Norte, a coastal province near Taiwan, or the self-ruled island seen by Beijing as a renegade province subject to reunification. This is part of the Balikatan exercise main activities.
The Philippines, however, clarified on April 17 that the vessel’s sinking was not intended to send a message to any specific nation. Chinese controlled media said, the move to use the Chinese-made oil tanker as a target of both countries’ anti-ship missiles shows clear provocative intent.
Army Colonel Michael Lohico, the executive agent and spokesman for Balikatan 2024, stated that CLAIM, and that warships from several participating nations would carry out the sinking drill in the northern Philippines.
After earning the ire of Chinese state media, the Philippine Navy on Tuesday said the decision to use an old made in China ship as a mock target in the Balikatan war games was not intentional.
In July 2023, the former BRP Lake Caliraya ran aground off Bataaan, but an American contractor retrieved the ship to be used for this exercise. A day before it ran aground, it was supposed to be used as a mock target for a bilateral marine exercise between Manila and Washington, but the drills were canceled due to inclement weather.
This is the second time the maritime sinking drills were conducted for Balikatan. A decommissioned Philippine Navy corvette, BRP Pangasinan, was sunk by a joint Filipino and American military force during a littoral live-fire training in the waters off Zambaales, Central Lozon. That sinking was the first of the two countries and was the last event in last year’s Balikatan drills.
The Balikatan 2024 drills, are being staged with tension running high between China and the Philippines in the disputed South China Sea, which often erupts in a confrontation between the coast guards of the two sides.




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