Philippines, U.S. hold annual Sama Sama exercise

Reuters

The Philippines and the United States kicked off combined drills in early October 2023, launching the 12-day exercise soon after a diplomatic row between Manila and Beijing in the West Philippine Sea, the area of the disputed South China Sea where the Philippines’ maritime rights extend.

The annual Sama Sama — Tagalog for “together” — included more than 1,000 Sailors from the two allies conducting anti-submarine, surface and electronic warfare drills off Manila and south of Luzon, the main island of the Philippines.

The People’s Republic of China’s aggression in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety despite a 2016 international ruling that the contention has no legal basis, is a growing concern for the Philippines, the U.S. and other regional Allies and Partners.

Vice Adm. Karl Thomas, commander of U.S. 7th Fleet, told Sailors at an opening ceremony in Manila that the rights of all nations to ensure their sovereignty are “under attack every day on the high seas.”

The rules-based international order that guaranteed regional peace for decades has been “ripped at and tagged at and tested to benefit not all nations but one nation,” he said, without mentioning the PRC.

“There’s no better way to ensure sovereignty and security than to sail and to operate together,” Thomas said.
At a news conference, Thomas said it’s important to maintain the right to sail through the area “free from worries about being attacked” or intimidated.

Beijing has deployed patrol boats in recent weeks that Manila says routinely harass Philippine Coast Guard vessels and fishermen in the West Philippine Sea.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered a special operation in late September 2023 in which Coast Guard personnel cut a rope tethering a floating barrier that Beijing had placed at the disputed Scarborough Shoal. The area is about 160 kilometers from the Philippines and more than 800 kilometers from mainland China.

Manila said the barrier prevented Philippine fishermen from entering the ring of reefs, which the PRC seized in 2012.

“What we will do is to continue defending the Philippines, the maritime territory of the Philippines, the rights of our fishermen to catch fish in areas where they [have been] doing it for hundreds of years already,” Marcos said.

Philippine Navy chief Vice Adm. Toribio Adaci said the Sama Sama exercise “equips us to face an array of threats together.”

U.S. Navy officials said the guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey took part in the exercise, along with a dry cargo ammunition ship and P-8 Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft.

A Philippine Navy guided-missile frigate also participated, along with a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer and the Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Vancouver.

Australia, Canada, France, Japan and the United Kingdom sent personnel to tabletop exercises as part of the drills, while Indonesia and New Zealand sent observers.