ABOARD HMCS MONTRÉAL SAILING IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA – As the CH-148 Cyclone helicopter prepared to take off, the Chinese warship was in view off the starboard side of the Canadian frigate.
The PLAN Type 056 Jiangdao-class corvette CNS Wuzhou (626) would remain nearby for the rest of the day, as Chinese warships and a coalition of U.S. allies held dueling drills off the coast of the Philippines on Wednesday.
Observed by USNI News from a Royal Canadian Air Force helicopter hovering over the exercise, three Chinese warships – two Type 056 Jiangdao-class corvettes and one Type 054A Jiangkai II-class frigate – boxed the coalition ships as they sought to complete a joint sail in a diamond formation.
The four nations are drilling together in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone – the stretch extending about 200 nautical miles from a country’s territorial waters – on Wednesday and Thursday for the first time.
“Australia, Canada, the Philippines, and the United States uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight, other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace, as well as respect for maritime rights under international law, as reflected in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS),” reads a statement signed by the defense chiefs of Canada, Australia and the Philippines and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command chief Adm. Sam Paparo.
China’s People’s Liberation Army Southern Theater Command announced its own naval and air exercise near Second Thomas Shoal on Wednesday, state-run China Daily reported.
The naval exercise “was intended to test its forces’ capability to carry out reconnaissance, early warnings, rapid deployments and joint strikes, noting that it has been closely monitoring all foreign military activities aiming to make trouble, create tensions and jeopardize peace and stability in the region,” according to China Daily.
As Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG-70) rendezvoused with Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Montréal (FFH-336) and two Philippine Navy ships on Wednesday morning, Wuzhou was operating off of Montréal’s starboard side.
Chatter on the ship that morning suggested the crew knew they had a Chinese tail and sailors were advised not to bring their personal cell phones up to the flight deck because foreign vessels were operating nearby.
Montréal flew its CH-148 helicopter so a sailor could snap a photo of the four ships – Montréal, Lake Erie, BRP Jose Rizal (FF-150) and BRP Ramon Alcaraz (PS-16). Wuzhou continued operating off of Montréal’s starboard side for the duration of the helicopter flight and was in view in the photos. While Montréal’s embarked helicopter flew overhead, one of the PLAN ships also launched a helicopter.
The Cyclone’s crew carefully maneuvered to keep their distance from the Chinese vessels, but the PLAN warships remained in view as they shadowed the coalition exercise.
For the joint sail, Montréal dispatched several sailors to Ramon Alcaraz and the Philippine Navy ships each sent a sailor to Montréal. The drills follow Montréal’s recent port visit to Manila, which included several exchanges with the Philippine Navy.
“Today was a good demonstration of the valuable opportunity to train together with our friends in the U.S. Navy, the Philippine Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force,” Cmdr. Travis Bain, the commanding officer of Montréal, said in a statement to USNI News about the exercise. “It is also a clear demonstration of Canada’s commitment to the rules-based international order especially in the Indo-Pacific.”
The exercise comes about a week after the Philippines performed its first resupply mission to BRP Sierra Madre (LT-57) since the government inked a deal with China over resupplying the outpost on Second Thomas Shoal. Neither country has published details about the agreement. While the recent resupply did not feature any incidents, China and the Philippines released conflicting statements following the mission, USNI News previously reported. China claimed that its forces inspected the Philippine vessels, while a Philippine government spokesman denied those assertions.
The deal between China and the Philippines followed months of tension over the missions to Sierra Madre, a rusting World War II-era tank landing ship that the Philippine Navy deliberately grounded on Second Thomas Shoal in the 1990s to stake its claim to the feature.
Over the last year, Chinese forces have grown increasingly aggressive toward the Filipino sailors performing those resupply missions, with China Coast Guard cutters firing water cannons at the Filipino ships. Several of those incidents have resulted in injuries to Filipino sailors and the ongoing aggression culminated in a mid-June incident in which Chinese forces, in blocking the resupply, severely injured a Filipino sailor and impounded Filipino small boats and firearms, USNI News reported at the time.
At the same time of the June resupply mission, Canada, the U.S., the Philippines and Japan were drilling nearby in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
In the joint statement about this week’s exercises, the U.S., Canada, the Philippines and Australia reiterated their support for the 2016 international tribunal that ruled against Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea and said China doesn’t have a legal claim to Second Thomas Shoal or the waters around the feature.
“We stand together to address common maritime challenges and underscore our shared dedication to upholding international law and the rules-based order,” reads the statement from the four countries. “Our four nations reaffirm the 2016 South China Sea Arbitral Tribunal Award as a final and legally binding decision on the parties to the dispute.”
