Water Wars: Flirting in the Taiwan Strait
USS Barry (DDG 52) conducts routine underway operations in the Taiwan Strait (U.S. Navy photo by LTJG Samuel Hardgrove).
This month saw some notable military activity in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, continued diplomatic efforts by the United States and its partners to push back against China, and a renewed emphasis by the U.S. Navy on countering China’s growing naval power. Much of the analysis regarding the Indo-Asia Pacific in the past month focused on what the incoming Biden administration would mean for the region.
Military Activity
Taiwan Tensions Continue
Locsin, Pompeo talk about reinforcing ‘binding’ South China Sea arbitral ruling
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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 19) Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro “Teddy Boy” Locsin, Jr. and his US counterpart recently talked about reinforcing the “binding nature” of the Philippines’ arbitration win in the South China Sea dispute, the US Department of State disclosed on Saturday.
Locsin also announced his “great phone conversation” with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Friday night. In a tweet, he said the top Washington official committed to try his best to help the Philippines secure COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer following an allegedly bungled deal.
Secretary Pompeo s Call with Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Locsin 19 December miragenews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from miragenews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
In the last week of July, 2020, an “online war” arose between Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro Locsin, Jr. and Malaysian Foreign Affairs Minister Hishammuddin Hussein over a simple tweet from the U.S. Embassy in Manila, regarding a donation from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to returning Filipino repatriates “from Sabah, Malaysia.” The tweet sparked an enraged response from Secretary Locsin, who replied that “Sabah is not in Malaysia if you want to have anything to do with the Philippines.” Two days later, Minister Hussein tweeted that “Sabah is, and will always be, part of Malaysia”, qualifying Secretary Locsin’s tweet as an “irresponsible statement that affects bilateral ties.” While the two parties have summoned each other’s representatives for an explanation on the matter, the case of Sabah raises fundamental questions about the direction of the country’s foreign policies.