Philippines

Mani­la says Pres­i­dent Mar­cos is­sued the or­der in de­fi­ance of Bei­jing’s po­si­tion that the dis­put­ed area be­longs to Chi­na.

The ex­er­cise fo­cused on hu­man­i­tar­i­an re­lief as the re­gion­al group­ing makes ten­ta­tive steps to­wards mil­i­tary co­op­er­a­tion.

Im­ages post­ed on so­cial me­dia show buoys block­ing Philip­pine fish­ing boats from en­ter­ing the area with­in Mani­la’s EEZ.