Japan and the Philippines will hold their first joint naval drill this month in the South China Sea near a disputed shoal claimed by Beijing, sources in Tokyo and the Philippines said Friday.
The May 12 maritime safety exercise, which will practise the code for unplanned encounters at sea, known as CUES, is part of an agreement signed by Japan and the Philippines in January aimed at tightening security cooperation.
The nature of the training is unlikely to worry China unduly, as it has conducted similar exercises with the United States in the past.
But the presence of Japanese naval vessels in the South China Sea signals Japan’s growing interest in the region, and may irritate Beijing as criticism of its land reclamation projects there mounts.
“The exercise will not be far from Scarborough Shoal,” one of the sources in Japan said, referring to a rocky outcrop which China seized in 2012 after a three-month standoff with the Philippines.
The two-hour practice within Philippines territorial waters near Subic Bay, a former U.S. navy base, will involve a Japanese warship and a Philippines navy frigate, a spokesman at the Philippines Navy said.
A spokesman for Japan’s Maritime Self Defense Force declined to comment.
China, which claims about 90% of the 3.5 million sq km South China Sea, is asserting its territorial claims by building a chain of man-made islands on coral reefs in the Spratly archipelago.
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