A four-nation alliance expressed concern over China's aggressive actions and united against Chinese expansion, Tagesschau reports.
This is the alliance between the US, Australia, Japan and India, also known as the Quad Group. After the group met in the Japanese capital, the countries announced that any measures “that seek to change the status quo through force or coercion” would be blocked, referring to Beijing's aggressive actions.
The Quad (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) group sees itself as a counterweight to China's expansionist interests in the Pacific Ocean. Although China was not mentioned by name, Beijing reacted quickly, calling the accusations “provocative” and unfaithful.
There have been repeated clashes between China and the Philippines in the area around the Spratly Islands, which are believed to hold large strategic oil and gas deposits.
China claims large parts of the South China Sea. An arbitration court in The Hague rejected China's ownership claims in 2016, but Beijing ignored it. China has already increased its patrols in the region, further increasing tensions with the Philippines.
Against this backdrop, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told US Secretaries Anthony Blinken and Lloyd Austin that regular contacts between Manila and Washington were needed to ensure the "timely" a reaction to the tension between his country and China in the ocean.
The Philippines has competing claims with China in the waters to its west, also known as the South China Sea. China claims that 90% of the sea is its sovereign territory. Tensions in the disputed maritime corridor have escalated into violence in the past year, with a Filipino sailor losing a finger in a clash with the Chinese coast guard on June 17, which Manila blames on the Chinese side.
Joint statements by the US and Japan "wrongly accuse" China in relation to naval matters and point the finger at normal military development and defense policy, China's Foreign Ministry said yesterday, as quoted by Reuters. The ministry's comment came after the US and Japan criticized the "provocative" Beijing's behavior in the South China and East China Seas, the joint military exercises with Russia and the rapid development of the nuclear weapons program.
In its annual report on the Chinese military, the US spoke of the rapid development of the military arsenal and nuclear warheads of the world's second largest economy.