My Take | Coastguard ship withdrawal by Manila a chance to calm waters
Beijing should exploit the return of the Teresa Magbanua to port as an opportunity for diplomatic reset and to de-escalate Philippine tensions
Despite his close alignment with Washington, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr probably doesn’t want to turn his country into an Asian version of Ukraine.
He has ordered the withdrawal of the coastguard vessel, the BRP Teresa Magbanua, which has kept watch over the disputed Sabina Shoal in the Spratly Islands.
The reef has become the latest flashpoint between China and the Philippines. The Teresa Magbanua, Manila’s largest coastguard ship, has been engaged in a months-long stand-off with the Chinese coastguard. The withdrawal came after bilateral diplomatic consultations with China last week. This is now a chance for both sides to de-escalate and return to diplomacy.
But sure enough, the United States and Britain immediately took to stirring the pot by issuing a strong warning threatening intervention. Their real fear is not that Beijing will escalate but rather the two sides may actually reach an accommodation. That would be bad for Washington’s narrative about China’s belligerence to justify its increasing military engagement in the region.
In a joint British-US statement, the two countries condemned the “dangerous and destabilising actions in the South China Sea by Chinese vessels towards Philippine vessels” as well as “unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion”.
They reaffirmed their commitment to a rules-based international system and “the importance of close coordination to advance shared objectives and common values and interests with respect to the Indo-Pacific”.
The statement came after the US-UK Strategic Dialogue was held between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy in London.
