The Philippine military deployed a navy ship and air force aircraft to track a Russian submarine passing through the country. South China Sea off the country’s west coast last week, a security official said Monday.
The Russian submarine identified itself in response to a two-way radio inquiry from the Philippine Navy, saying it was en route to Vladivostok in eastern Russia after participating in an exercise with the Malaysian navy, Jonathan Malaya, deputy director general of the National Security Council. , said.
The submarine, like other foreign vessels, has the right of “innocent passage” in the country’s exclusive economic zone, but it nevertheless raised concerns when it was spotted on Thursday about 80 nautical miles off the coast of the Philippine province of Mindoro, Malaya said.
Roy Vincent Trinidad, a navy spokesman in the South China Sea, said the incident was “not alarming.”
“But we were surprised because it is a very unique submarine,” he told AFP.
The 74-meter (243-foot) long ship is armed with a missile system with a range of 12,000 kilometers (7,450 miles), according to Russia’s official TASS news agency.
The submarine was sighted after surfacing due to weather conditions, Malaysia said.
Philippine president calls Russian submarine ‘worrying’
“All of this is very concerning,” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told reporters when asked about the submarine. “Any intrusion into the West Philippine Sea, into our EEZ, into our baselines is very concerning. So, yes, it’s just another intrusion.”
Marcos used the Filipino name for the South China Sea, where his country, along with Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and other coastal states, have faced an increasingly aggressive China, which claims almost the entire busy waterway.
An alarming surge in territorial clashes, particularly between Chinese and Philippine coast guards and naval forces, starting last year has prompted the United States and other Western governments to more closely monitor the main trade route worldwide.
The Philippine Coast Guard said Monday that a Chinese military helicopter flew over fishing boats manned by Filipinos in a “dangerous act of harassment” last week in Iroquois Reef, a disputed fishing area in the Pacific Ocean. Southern China.
Two Philippine Coast Guard patrol vessels were deployed to the area to protect Filipino fishermen, Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said.
There was no immediate comment from Chinese officials.
As “60 Minutes” reported Recently, tensions have escalated precariously in the waters off the Philippines’ west coast, where an international tribunal has ruled that the Philippines has exclusive economic rights. But China claims almost the entire South China Sea, one of the world’s most vital waterways, through which more than $3 trillion in goods pass each year.
Meanwhile, China and Russia have expanded military and defense ties since Moscow ordered troops in Ukraine nearly three years ago, and joint exercises involving the Russian and Chinese militaries have recently intensified. Last week, South Korea’s military said it had dispatched fighter jets five Chinese and six Russian military planes flew over its air defense zone.
In September, the U.S. military moved about 130 troops accompanied by mobile rocket launchers to a desolate island in the Aleutian chain west of Alaska, amid a recent surge in aircraft and of Russian military ships approaching American territory. Eight Russian military aircraft and four naval ships, including two submarineshad recently moved closer to Alaska as Russia and China conducted joint military exercises.
AFP contributed to this report.
