The Philippine coast guard has begun training with counterparts from Japan and the United States using a Japan-made patrol vessel amid China’s increased assertiveness in the disputed South China Sea.
The training started early the week of Oct. 24, but it was not open to the media until Oct. 28. About 100 Philippine personnel and several U.S. and Japanese personnel participated in the training that will run through Nov. 5.
Philippine personnel will practice towing a disabled ship in Manila Bay using a 97-meter-long (318-foot-long) patrol vessel supplied by Japan during the two-week training, Japanese news agency The Mainichi reported.
“Towing, for instance, is not an operation that we conduct regularly… so in bringing in the Japanese coast guard and the U.S. Coast Guard, we are able to share our different ideas, share our different ways of doing things,” Lt. Bryce Matakas of the U.S. Coast Guard told The Mainichi on Friday….