US, Philippine top diplomats express concerns over Chinese vessels in West Philippine Sea

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met with his Filipino counterpart, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., to discuss China’s deployment of military vessels in the South China Sea.

In a tweet, Blinken said he had a "substantive conversation" with Locsin, who has vowed to file diplomatic protests until the last of the Chinese ships has departed Julian Felipe Reef.

The two expressed "our concerns with People’s Republic of China militia vessels in the South China Sea and our efforts to combat anti-Asian hate and violence. #FriendsPartnersAllies," Blinken said.

Blinken's tweet came a day after US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that the US stands with the Philippines “in the face of the PRC's (People’s Republic of China) maritime militia amassing in the South China Sea."

"We will always stand by our allies and stand up for the rules-based international order," Price said.

He added that an armed attack against the Philippine military, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific, including the South China Sea, "will trigger our obligations under US-Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty."

The MDT, a deal inked between Manila and Washington in 1952, provides that an armed attack in the Pacific Area on either the Philippines and the US would be dangerous and that they would act to meet the common dangers in accordance with its constitutional processes.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and the National Task Force on West Philippine Sea have already called on at least 44 Chinese vessels to leave the Julian Felipe Reef and the rest of the Chinese ships to leave the areas under the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone as upheld by the UN Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling in July 2016.

Chinese diplomats have said the boats were sheltering in the Julian Felipe Reef from rough seas and no militia were aboard as accused by Philippines officials.

China, however, has refused to recognize the UN court ruling, which stemmed from the case filed by the Philippines.

China is claiming the entire South China Sea as its territory — a claim that has already been rejected by the July 2016 UN court ruling.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, China and Vietnam have competing territorial claims in the South China Sea, through which at least $3.4 trillion of annual trade passes.

In the same call, Blinken also discussed the Biden administration’s efforts to combat rising hate and violence against Asians and Asian-Americans.

Recently, an elderly Filipino woman was violently attacked in midtown Manhattan in New York drawing condemnation from the Filipino and Asian communities in the US. Her assailant, Brandon Elliot, 38, was apprehended by the New York City Police Department. —with Reuters and Michaela del Callar/KBK, GMA News