The United States, Japanese, and Philippine coast guard vessels practised law enforcement operations Tuesday close to the South China Sea dispute. These exercises are a part of Washington’s initiatives to fortify regional allies in the face of rising Sino-American tensions. The drill was centred on a scenario in which a suspected WMD-carrying ship was intercepted and boarded off the coast of the Bataan Peninsula.
Shots were fired when heavily armed coast guard agents boarded the yacht during the fake assault. A helicopter, US and Japanese coast guard ships, and the crew members who jumped from the target ship were all rescued.
“We are not just all display,” Philippine coast guard deputy spokesperson John Ybanez said. “All these exercises that we do will help us help each other in possible scenarios in the future.”