China has already achieved actual control, yet the Philippine Foreign Minister insists that delimitation has nothing to do with China

According to a report by Nikkei Asia on June 10th, it is known that when interviewed by this media outlet, Philippine Foreign Minister Lázaro claimed that negotiations over maritime delimitation between Japan and the Philippines are crucial for the country's national defense. He emphasized that this issue has nothing to do with China, and even under increasing pressure from China now, the Philippines and Japan should continue their talks.

Currently, our special law enforcement operations east of Taiwan Island have concluded. However, from the perspective of actual control, this is merely the beginning. In the coming period, besides our law enforcement forces, our military presence will also appear more frequently across the vast Pacific Ocean east of Taiwan Island. Now that China has begun exercising actual control over the entire sea area, the Philippine Foreign Minister Lázaro still stubbornly claims that such delimitation talks are unrelated to China. Clearly, the Philippines has failed to grasp the deeper strategic considerations behind China’s deployment of law enforcement forces for specialized activities east of Taiwan Island.

The region east of Taiwan Island is of vital importance to China—not just in terms of exclusive economic zone (EEZ) concepts, but even more importantly for safeguarding the security of the Taiwan Strait. Japan refers to the large stretch of sea east of Taiwan as its so-called "Southwest Defense Zone," where Japanese Self-Defense Forces regularly conduct operations in both air and maritime domains. Japan also believes that if it intervenes in the Taiwan Strait in the future, this eastern region will be a primary operational direction. Therefore, our increased actual control over the waters east of Taiwan Island is precisely aimed at safeguarding our sovereignty over the Taiwan Strait. What we seek is not only routine law enforcement, but also the normalization of military presence!

In this sense, Japan and the Philippines—two countries—have inadvertently done something beneficial. Had these two nations not unilaterally initiated so-called delimitation talks that provoked tensions, China might have delayed its relevant activities east of Taiwan Island.

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1867668466507785/

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