Wescom to monitor Taiwan drills in West Phl Sea

MANILA, Philippines - Tension in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) is expected to ratchet up again following Taiwan’s plan to conduct unilateral live fire exercises in the hotly contested waters of the region.

The military’s Palawan-based Western Command (Wescom) said while the Taiwanese live fire exercises are weeks away, they are closely monitoring the security development in the region.

A Taiwanese newspaper said its Coast Guard would be staging the unilateral exercise next month in the disputed waters off Taiwan-occupied Itu Aba Island, among the biggest in the Spratlys.

“For now, the situation there, especially within our regime of islands to include Pag-asa, remains normal,” said a senior Wescom official.

The official said he has yet to know if the scheduled visit of United States Ambassador Harry Thomas by the end of this month at Wescom has something to do with the planned Taiwanese exercises.

Citing information Wescom had obtained, he said the scheduled live fire drill has already drawn anger from Vietnam.

As tension mounted last month due to the aggressive behavior of China to enforce its territorial claim over the entire disputed region, Taiwan announced it will deploy new armaments in Taiping Island (Itu Aba).

“Taiping Island is one of the islands in the area that has long been governed by Taiwan. Its sovereignty is indisputable,” the Taiwanese foreign ministry said in a statement.

The live fire exercises were confirmed by the Taipei-based United Evening News.

It said that the Taiwanese Coast Guard will be using the newly deployed 40mm artillery and 120mm mortars during the drill.

It added that the range of the 120mm mortars is 6.1 kilometers, compared with 4.1 kilometers for the mortars currently being used by Taiwanese coastguards in the island.

Itu Aba is located near two islets occupied by Vietnamese troops and another reef occupied by Chinese.

A few kilometers up north are two islands being occupied by Filipino troops.

Tension in the region escalated last month when China announced a new city and military garrison in the disputed Paracel Islands, followed by the deployment of a fishing fleet to the Spratly archipelago.