Manila: The Philippines and Vietnam are “vigorously negotiating” to conclude a defence pact before the end of 2015, sources have said, amid a dispute with China over territory in the South China Sea.
The proposed “strategic partnership” will be the Philippines’ first with one of five other claimant countries in the South China Sea, and Vietnam’s fourth with fellow member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario and Vietnam’s foreign minister, Pham Binh Minh, chair of the joint working committee assigned to craft details of the proposed strategic partnership, mulled on “possible joint naval exercises”, during their initial meeting in Manila on January 29 and 30, a foreign affairs source who requested for anonymity told Gulf News.
The joint working committee was established by Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyan Tan Dung and Philippine President Benigno Aquino, during Dung’s state visit in Manila in May 2014.
Over the past five years since Philippine Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and Vietnam Defence Minister General Phung Quang Than signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Defence Cooperation in Hanoi, defence relations between the Philippine and Vietnam remained “on the level of dialogues on coast guards’ hotline access and information sharing [about] pirates and terrorists, education of Filipino and Vietnamese fishermen on maritime boundaries, humanitarian assistance, joint war material development, military training and exchange visit, search and rescue exercises, and ship building,” said the same source.
“Implementation of the 2010 defence cooperation never inched towards joint naval exercises because it is a sore spot for China. The proposed Philippine-Vietnam strategic partnership might make a difference. How to avoid China’s ire is another issue,” geopolitical analyst Antonio Pangilinan said.
When the Philippine Navy’s Vice-Admiral Alexander Pama, and Vietnam’s Army and Navy Commander, Admiral Nguyen Van Hien signed an agreement on Standard Operating Procedures in 2012, they also agreed to hold maritime patrols in the South China Sea.
China’s irked response prompted Philippine and Vietnamese navies to hold instead basketball and football matches in one of the islands claimed by the Philippines in the Spratly Archipelago.
This did not stop Philippine Foreign Secretary del Rosario and Vietnam’s Foreign Minister Pham from discussing solutions to overlapping problems in the South China Sea, in a meeting in Manila in July 2013, sources said.
In 2013, Vietnam also began negotiating for proposed bilateral strategic partnerships with other Asean countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore.
Asean is composed of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesian, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
China, Taiwan, and Vietnam claim the whole of the South China Sea, including parts of Spratly Archipelago. Brunei, Malaysia, and the Philippines claim some parts of the Spratly Archipelago, including their respective 200 nautical miles exclusive economic zone in the sea-lane.
