"We just went through a change in administration", Admiral Swift said on Monday in a briefing in Singapore. "We can still go to our [forces] in Pag-asa", Lorenzana said.
In between his trips to Cambodia and China, Mr Duterte will make a stopover, on May 12, in Hong Kong, where more than 210,000 Filipinos are working.
A hiatus in the US' freedom of navigation operations (Fonop) in the South China Sea does not mean that the disputed waterway is becoming a lower priority for the administration of US President Donald Trump, Pacific Fleet Commander Scott Swift has cautioned.
"It's fair to say it hasn't been paused, but it's also fair to say there have not been any FONOPs since Trump has taken office". "This is a matter of a new administration coming in and having to get its plan together on how to move forward". By claiming these islands as China's sovereign territory, Beijing could threaten the movement of many billions of dollars worth of cargo through the region. Even if reports are accurate that the current administration is taking a pause in freedom of navigation operations by the U.S. Navy - in the interest of gaining Chinese assistance dealing with North Korea - it is hard to imagine any United States government persistently abandoning our interest and those of our allies and partners.
During Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's Senate confirmation hearings, he stressed that China needs to be denied access to the islands. They expressed grave concern over the Korea situation and urged North Korea to comply with the relevant UN Security Council resolution. "The overall combat capability of the force is increasing by stages, forging a formidable force that dares to fight and thunders over the South China Sea".
Late last month, top U.S. commander in the Asia-Pacific region, Admiral Harry Harris, said the United States would likely carry out freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea soon, without offering details.
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When asked by the Post for a time frame when a FONOP may take place, "Soon", she added.
China appears to be boosting defenses at a key South China Sea military base.
"I don't think so".
This comes on top of his own government's public distancing from a 2016 worldwide tribunal ruling in favor of the Philippines claim to the Scarborough Shoal and against China's competing claim and its island-building campaign.
The New York Times reported last week that a US Pacific Command request in March to sail near the disputed Scarborough Shoal, a prime fishing ground that China seized in 2012, was rejected by top Pentagon officials. "One could argue that FONOPs would be one way to reduce that sense of uncertainty".
China has dismissed the ruling and continued to develop seven artificial islands in the South China Sea's Spratly archipelago. The South China Sea is a major passage for global trade; in 2015 a Defense Department report estimated 30 percent of USA trade flows through the sea, at a value of about $1.2 trillion annually. During the last 8 years of the Obama administration, United States had carried out 6 FONOPs from 2013 to 2016.
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