PH, US to hold ‘2+2’ meet

From Malaya Business Insight (Jan 8): PH, US to hold ‘2+2’ meet

DEFENSE Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario will meet their US counterparts next week, with the South China Sea dispute as potential top agenda.

Gazmin said the “2 + 2” meeting with US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and US Secretary of State John Kerry will take place on Tuesday in Washington.

“That’s my speculation, that might be one of the subject matters,” said Gazmin. He said he has yet to see the meeting’s agenda though the meeting had been planned long ago.

Gazmin said the passage of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which allows the US military to preposition forces and assets in the Philippines, is a common concern for the two governments but did not say if the agreement will be discussed in the meeting.

The two governments signed EDCA in April 2014. It’s implementation was however put on hold, pending a Supreme Court decision on the petitions lodged by various groups on the constitutionality of the agreement.

Gazmin described as an “aggressive” act China’s recent test flight on its newly-established runway at the Fiery Cross Reef, one of the seven reefs in the South China Sea where the Chinese had conducted land reclamation.

Gazmin said it was early to judge the Aquino administration in its approach in the South China Sea dispute amid the test flight.

He asked the public to wait for the decision of the international arbitral court on the case lodged by government against China’s nine-dash-line claim.

In a separate interview also in Camp Aguinaldo, AFP Western Command chief Vice Adm. Alexander Lopez said China had completed land reclamation in four reefs, referring to Cuarteron, Gaven, Johnson South, and McKennan reefs.

Lopez said China’s land reclamations are still ongoing in three other reefs, namely Fiery Cross, Mischief and Subi reefs. He said the Chinese are still putting up “vertical” structures and facilities in the artificial islands.

At the Department of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said a diplomatic protest is being readied over two successive test flights undertaken by China over the Fiery Cross Reef.

Del Rosario and visiting British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond expressed concern over the “aggressive moves” of China to assert its military control over the West Philippine Sea.

“We are very concerned about the fact that China had already flown their flights to Fiery Cross Reef and we are also concerned that there are plans to do more,” Del Rosario said in a joint press conference with Hammond.

China has said its test flights would determine if the newly-built air strip adheres to civil aviation standards.

The aircraft took off from the Meilan Airport of Haikou, capital of Hainan Province, at 10:21 a.m. and landed at the airfield on Kagitingan Reef of the Kalayaan group of islands at 10:46 a.m. China calls the reef Yongshu Jiao.

http://malaya.com.ph/business-news/news/ph-us-hold-%E2%80%9822%E2%80%99-meet