MANILA (Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network): The Philippines is in talks to possibly include Australia and Japan in planned joint South China Sea (SCS) patrols with the United States, a senior diplomat said on Monday (Feb 27), in another sign of concern over Beijing’s activities in the strategic waters.
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Invoking the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty – acknowledging and repeatedly stressing its applicability in the West Philippine Sea (a Philippine proposition earlier rejected by the Obama administration) – the United States appears to be angling to use Subic Bay once more as its naval base in this part of the world.
China used Speaker Pelosi’s trip not only to show its displeasure over her decision to visit Taiwan, but to display to the world that it could form six concentric naval and air zones encircling Taiwan as a trial run for cutting it off from the rest of the world.
So goes the first line in the classic hit New York, New York, the theme song from the Martin Scorsese film of the same name in 1977, composed by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb.