Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday wrapped up her trip to the Philippines with a visit to Palawan, an island province with a coast on the disputed South China Sea.
From there, Harris delivered a speech onboard a Philippine Coast Guard vessel and said the US would lead a campaign against “irresponsible behavior” in the region, referencing Beijing.
China, the Philippines, and several other Southeast Asian countries all have overlapping claims to the South China Sea. The US has inserted itself into the dispute and rejects most of Beijing’s claims.
Harris is now the highest-level US official to visit Palawan, demonstrating the emphasis the Biden administration is putting on confronting China in the South China Sea.
“We must stand up for principles such as respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, unimpeded lawful commerce, the peaceful resolution of disputes, and the freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea, and throughout the Indo-Pacific,” Harris told Philippine coast guard officers.
A day earlier, Harris met with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and vowed to defend the Philippines in the South China Sea. She reaffirmed that an attack on Philippine vessels in the waters would invoke mutual defense commitments under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty between the US and the Philippines.
When asked about Harris’ visit, China’s Foreign Ministry said it wasn’t against US contacts with other countries. “We are not against normal interaction between the US and the Philippines, but their interaction should not be damaging to other countries’ interests,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.
In her speech on Tuesday, Harris announced a new cooperation with the Philippines to cut down on illegal fishing. A major part of the dispute between China and other Southeast Asian claimants to the South China Sea is over who can fish where.
Harris said the US was providing new funding the Philippine law enforcement to help them combat illegal fishing. She said it was part of an initiative launched in May to “provide more training, assets, and personnel to build maritime law enforcement capabilities across Southeast Asia.”
Sounds like they need to put in clear lanes, with traffic lights.
Great idea, start another war. Stir the pot. Push, push, push.
The British and French fishermen have also differences about fishing rights, maybe she should help them too.
I know this is not original, but STOP THE WORLD, I WANT TO GET OFF!
ME TOO. Or catch a Vogon spaceship to Betelguese
The insanity of the Biden bunch is unbelievable, what a shallow and ignorant woman she is, she is not presidential material, we can be sure of that.
Actually she aced her audition. Repeated what she was supposed to with a straight face.
Did they ask her for funding their law enforcement and who gives her permission to make such promises? That woman is nuts. she must know nothing about the Marcos and Imelda family gang. Maybe the present Ms. Marcos needs someone to pay for her shoe collection.
She is just repeating what she is told. She knows that it is a pack of lies.
Just like the rest of our government officials dating back to … probably George Washington.
She is a puppet just like the rest of them.
Harris hasn’t gone to Texas to “uphold international rules and norms” but now she has gone to far away Palawan for that reason, putting fish over people. Anyhow, she might be popular somewhere. . . . Viva Palawan!
We stick our noses into everyone’s business. That’s who and what we are – no more, no less, the planet’s self-appointed cop.
What a nauseating country the US has become – Earth’s sledgehammer.
Watching Harris making a fool of herself in order to be a member of the team deducts what little respect I had remaining for her.
Totally agree!!
Half a million homeless, undrinkable tap water, bridges and roads falling apart, migration crisis, record inflation and looming recession – let’s stir up a war thousands of miles away over some rocks in the middle of nowhere! Our MIC government is the absolutely the worst.