(Bloomberg) -- The US said its forces are backing Philippine military operations in the disputed South China Sea, where Manila and Beijing have clashed over competing claims.
“Task Force-Ayungin enhances US-Philippine alliance coordination and interoperability by enabling US forces to support Armed Forces of the Philippines activities in the South China Sea,” Kanishka Gangopadhyay, spokesperson at the US Embassy in Manila, said in a statement on Thursday.
Ayungin is Manila’s name for Second Thomas Shoal, where the Southeast Asian nation grounded a World War II-era vessel in 1999 to serve as its military outpost. The Philippines’ resupply missions to Filipino troops stationed on the ship previously led to confrontations with Chinese ships.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin this week visited a command and control center in the western Philippine province of Palawan, which faces the disputed waterway. In a post on social media platform X, Austin said he “met with some American service members deployed to US Task Force Ayungin,” in what appeared to be the first public acknowledgment of its existence.
The Philippine military said on Thursday the US troops provide technical assistance that helps enhance Manila’s maritime domain awareness. It’s “a critical task that aids in planning and implementing programs and activities to protect our interests in the West Philippine Sea,” spokesperson Francel Margareth Padilla said in a statement, using the term for areas of the South China Sea that are within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
The two allies on Monday signed an agreement that allows them to share classified defense information amid growing assertiveness from Beijing over the South China Sea and Taiwan.
In August, US Indo-Pacific Command head Admiral Samuel Paparo said Washington was willing to escort Philippine vessels during resupply missions amid recurring run-ins with Chinese ships.
The Philippines and China in July reached a “provisional arrangement” on Manila’s resupply operations to the Second Thomas Shoal, paving the way for missions without untoward incidents even as encounters between the two nations were reported in other parts of the disputed waterway in recent months.
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