The trilateral summit, which will be held in Washington on April 11, comes at a time of increasing tension in the western Pacific
Biden has also increasingly turned to the three-way summit format to build US alliances.
- In August he hosted Japan’s Kishida and South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol at his Camp David presidential retreat, in a bid to bring the two US allies closer after years of tensions.
- Biden held a landmark summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in California in November in a bid to prevent conflict between the two superpowers, but relations remain tense.
INSERT: a flashback >
China’s Wang Yi Says US’s Indo-Pacific Strategy ‘Doomed to Fail’
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the US’s Indo-Pacific strategy is “doomed to fail,” making his remarks while President Joe Biden is in the region to increase engagement with allies and counter China’s rise and influence.
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In a statement to the press yesterday, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said that leaders “will discuss trilateral cooperation to promote inclusive economic growth and emerging technologies, advance clean energy supply chains and climate cooperation, and further peace and security in the Indo-Pacific and around the world.” She added that the three leaders “will also reaffirm the ironclad alliances between the United States and the Philippines, and the United States and Japan.”
Biden will also take the opportunity to meet for a one-on-one meeting with Marcos, during which the two leaders will “review the historic momentum in U.S.-Philippines relations.” Jean-Pierre added that Biden will “reaffirm the ironclad alliance between the United States and the Philippines and emphasize U.S. commitment to upholding international law and promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
The summit, the first trilateral meeting between the three nations, will take place in Washington a day after Biden’s meeting with Kishida, who will attend a state dinner in his honor hosted by the U.S. president.
While the summit seems set to address a range of issues, it comes against a backdrop of tension in the South China Sea, where China is making increasingly frequent and forceful incursions into waters claimed by the Philippines. These have resulted in a series of dangerous high-seas encounters, including, most recently, the China Coast Guard (CCG)’s ramming of a Philippine Coast Guard vessel. Four Philippine navy personnel were also injured when the CCG fired high-pressure water cannons at one of the supply vessels, smashing its windshield.
The incident and others like it took place close to Second Thomas Shoal, a Philippine-occupied feature in the Spratly Islands, around which China has erected an informal blockage, harassing Philippine attempts to resupply its unit of marines stationed at the shoal.
The trilateral summit was flagged by Marcos and other Philippine officials earlier this week, in connection with today’s visit of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Manila.
Biden will also take the opportunity to meet for a one-on-one meeting with Marcos, during which the two leaders will “review the historic momentum in U.S.-Philippines relations.” Jean-Pierre added that Biden will “reaffirm the ironclad alliance between the United States and the Philippines and emphasize U.S. commitment to upholding international law and promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
The summit, the first trilateral meeting between the three nations, will take place in Washington a day after Biden’s meeting with Kishida, who will attend a state dinner in his honor hosted by the U.S. president.
While the summit seems set to address a range of issues, it comes against a backdrop of tension in the South China Sea, where China is making increasingly frequent and forceful incursions into waters claimed by the Philippines. These have resulted in a series of dangerous high-seas encounters, including, most recently, the China Coast Guard (CCG)’s ramming of a Philippine Coast Guard vessel. Four Philippine navy personnel were also injured when the CCG fired high-pressure water cannons at one of the supply vessels, smashing its windshield.
The incident and others like it took place close to Second Thomas Shoal, a Philippine-occupied feature in the Spratly Islands, around which China has erected an informal blockage, harassing Philippine attempts to resupply its unit of marines stationed at the shoal.
The trilateral summit was flagged by Marcos and other Philippine officials earlier this week, in connection with today’s visit of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Manila.
- Security cooperation is expected to be high on the agenda during Blinken’s meeting with Marcos, and it is likely to involve preparatory talks for the Summit with Biden and Kishida next month.
- Speaking in Berlin, the Philippine leader said that the intention of the meeting with Blinken “is to continue the plan to strengthen the cooperation between the three countries – the United States, Japan, and the Philippines.”
- The Philippines and Japan are perhaps the two most reliable U.S. partners in the western Pacific, with the possible addition of Australia.
- They share both its concerns about China’s growing maritime clout and the principle of the “free and open Indo-Pacific” advanced by the past two U.S. administrations.
- Both Washington and Tokyo have also enhanced their security and maritime cooperation with Manila over the past 18 months, as it has come under increasing Chinese pressure in the South China Sea.
- Next month’s summit offers a signal that this cooperation will likely only deepen in the months and years to come.
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China has drawn its territorial line in the Gulf of Tonkin. Is the South China Sea next?
- Beijing has released a series of points to define its waters along its southern coast
The result is a series of straight lines that some observers say extends its maritime area
Earlier this month, Beijing declared a set of seven base points along its southern coast to demarcate its territorial waters and sovereignty over airspace, seabed and subsoil in the Gulf of Tonkin, known in China as the Beibu Gulf.
Previously, China had not specified a baseline but, under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), its maritime zone was measured from its low-water line along the coast and was curved.
Now China is defining its territorial waters extend seaward up to 12 nautical miles from the straight lines formed by the seven points, which some analysts say covers a bigger area.
Beijing said the new baseline was in line with Unclos – which allows for straight lines in some cases – as well as a demarcation agreement with Vietnam for the Gulf of Tonkin, which was signed in 2000.
It is also in line with China’s Law on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone adopted in 1992, which says the baseline should be straight.
On its WeChat account, the Chinese foreign ministry’s department of boundary and ocean affairs said the move was necessary to exercise China’s sovereignty and jurisdiction.
“The announcement of new baseline … is an important part of China’s efforts to improve the delineation of the baseline of the territorial sea, with a view to better serving the economic development of the provinces and regions along the Beibu Gulf, such as Guangxi, Guangdong and Hainan, and striving to realise the strategic goal of building a strong maritime power,” the department said. . .
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Friday that China had a “legitimate and lawful right” to delineate the new baseline.
Under their agreement signed in 2000, China and Vietnam agreed on a delimitation line in the gulf, giving Vietnam 53.23 per cent of the gulf and China 46.77 per cent. The two sides also agreed to establish a joint fishing regime in that area.
Vietnam’s foreign ministry declined to say on Thursday whether the new base points would jeopardise the two-decade-old agreement, stating only that international law and the rights and interests of other countries must be respected.
Kentaro Nishimoto, an international law professor with Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, said the new baseline would allow China to convert a large part of the northern South China Sea into its internal waters, where it could exercise more control.“This leads to a fairly large area that was formerly China’s exclusive economic zone being converted into the territorial sea or internal waters, where it could exercise more powers under international law,” Nishimoto said.
There have also been concerns that Beijing could restrict ship movements in the area around Hainan Island.
“Under Unclos, the rights of innocent passage and transit passage remain even if a straight baseline is established,” Nishimoto said.
“If China adopts a different interpretation and seeks to restrict the navigation of ships in this area, this would have an impact on the navigational rights of all other states.”
Jay Batongbacal, director of the Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea at the University of the Philippines Diliman, said the new baseline in the gulf was “clearly excessive”, with some places beyond the 24-nautical mile limits from shore.
“It is indicative of China’s overall attitude towards expanding its territorial claims into the sea, attempting to increase its internal waters as much as possible, and abusing its rights as a coastal state under Unclos,” Batongbacal said.
“This attitude of playing fast and loose with the baselines is likely going to be reflected in its future actions toward the islands in the South China Sea,” he said, referring to the future delineation of baselines elsewhere in the strategic waterway.
So far it has announced three sets of baselines for its maritime territory. These include
“It is indicative of China’s overall attitude towards expanding its territorial claims into the sea, attempting to increase its internal waters as much as possible, and abusing its rights as a coastal state under Unclos,” Batongbacal said.
“This attitude of playing fast and loose with the baselines is likely going to be reflected in its future actions toward the islands in the South China Sea,” he said, referring to the future delineation of baselines elsewhere in the strategic waterway.
So far it has announced three sets of baselines for its maritime territory. These include
- points on the outer edge along and outer islands off the coast of China until
- on the eastern tip of the Shandong peninsula that faces the Korean peninsula across the Yellow Sea, as well as
- lines completely enclosing the Paracels.
- In 2012, when territorial spat over the East China Sea escalated, Beijing also declared a set of base points near the Japanese-held Diaoyu Islands, also known as the Senkakus.
It has not set baselines for the Pratas Islands, also known as the Dongsha; the Spratly, or Nansha, Islands as well as the Zhongsha Islands in the South China Sea.
Hanoi’s low-key approach may be central to muted confrontations with Beijing4 Feb 2024
Hanoi’s low-key approach may be central to muted confrontations with Beijing
4 Feb 2024
Nishimoto, from Tohoku University, said Chinese law assumed that straight baselines would be designated for all of China’s coastline but this had not been done in reality for some parts of China’s coast.
- “[This has] raised questions about whether a further designation for the maritime features in the South China Sea will follow in the near future,” he said.
- But Ding Duo, an associate research fellow at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies in Hainan, said Beijing was unlikely to rush to do this.
“There are more factors to take into account when it comes to the Spratly Islands, over which China admits there are disputes over the territorial sovereignty and maritime delimitation,” he said.
He said concerns over possible restrictions on navigation in the region were overstated.
He said concerns over possible restrictions on navigation in the region were overstated.
- “The only impact would be on foreign warships, which would be required to seek permission from China, but in reality, I don’t think any foreign warships would have to travel into the gulf.”
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MARCH 18, 2024Statement from Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on the Upcoming Trilateral Leaders’ Summit of the Philippines, Japan, and the United States
BRIEFING ROOM
STATEMENTS AND RELEASES
President Biden will host President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. of the Philippines and Prime Minister Kishida Fumio of Japan on April 11 at the White House for the first trilateral U.S.-Japan-Philippines leaders’ summit.
At the summit, the leaders will advance
- a trilateral partnership built on deep historical ties of friendship,
- robust and growing economic relations,
- a proud and resolute commitment to shared democratic values, and
- a shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific.
The leaders will also reaffirm the ironclad alliances between the United States and the Philippines, and the United States and Japan.
At the summit, the three leaders will discuss
- trilateral cooperation to promote inclusive economic growth and emerging technologies,
- advance clean energy supply chains and climate cooperation, and
- further peace and security in the Indo-Pacific and around the world.
- efforts to expand cooperation on economic security,
- clean energy,
- people-to-people ties, and
- human rights and democracy.
The President will reaffirm the ironclad alliance between the United States and the Philippines and emphasize U.S. commitment to upholding international law and promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific.
Japan and the Philippines meanwhile said during a visit by Kishida in November that they would begin negotiations for a defence pact that would allow them to deploy troops on each other’s territory.
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The announcement of the three-way summit came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was heading to Manila, a trip that the State Department said would reaffirm America’s “unwavering commitment” to the Philippines.Japan and the Philippines meanwhile said during a visit by Kishida in November that they would begin negotiations for a defence pact that would allow them to deploy troops on each other’s territory.
White House to host first-ever US-Philippines-Japan summit to counter China
- US President Joe Biden’s press secretary confirmed the April 11 meeting to advance a ‘partnership built on deep historical ties of friendship’
- Japan invaded the Philippines, a former US colony, during World War II. Beijing recently accused Washington of using Manila as a ‘pawn’ in disputes
US President Joe Biden will hold the first three-way summit with the leaders of the Philippines and Japan next month, as the United States boosts alliances against China.
Biden’s meeting with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House on April 11 is the latest in a series of meeting with Asia-Pacific allies.
It also comes against a backdrop of clashes between Philippines and Chinese vessels in the South China Sea, where the countries have contested maritime claims.
“The leaders will advance a trilateral partnership built on deep historical ties of friendship” including a “shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Monday local time.
- Biden will later hold a separate bilateral meeting with Marcos to “reaffirm the ironclad alliance” with the Philippines, she said.
- Kishida will be at the White House for a state visit the day before, which had already been announced.
- Japan believes the talks will boost a “free and open international order based on the rules of law,” chief government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said.
“With the Japan-US alliance as the linchpin, we believe that deepening cooperation with like-minded countries like the Philippines in a wide range of areas will be essential to maintaining the peace and prosperity of this region,” he told reporters.
The US is redoubling efforts to improve long-standing ties with regional allies such as Tokyo and Manila, in an effort to counterbalance an increasingly aggressive China.
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