The United States on Friday renewed its call on China to stop its aggressive actions in the South China Sea, saying a broader web of security alliances has emerged to preserve the rule of law in the disputed waters.

Washington’s top diplomat in Manila was joined by counterparts from key Western and Asian allies, including Japan and Australia, in a Manila forum to express alarm over increasing hostilities in the contested waters, particularly between China and the Philippines. They committed to help defend a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific region.

In the worst confrontation so far, Chinese coast guard personnel armed with knives, spears and an axe aboard motorboats repeatedly rammed and destroyed two Philippine navy supply vessels on June 17 in a chaotic faceoff at the disputed Second Thomas Shoal that injured Filipino sailors and led to the seizure of seven Philippine navy rifles.

China and the Philippines blamed one another for the incident, the latest in a series of high-seas confrontations since last year. Aside from China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have been locked in the decades-long territorial conflicts.

"With the backing of an increasingly interconnected latticework of alliances and partnerships, the United States continues to urge the PRC to cease escalatory and dangerous harassment of Philippine vessels lawfully operating in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone,” U.S. Ambassador MaryKay Carlson told the forum, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

China should “cease interfering with freedom of navigation and overflight of all states lawfully operating in the region,” Carlson said. “The volume of condemnation from the international community is loud and getting louder and it speaks to our common resolve in support of the international rules and norms that benefit us all."

The Biden administration has been strengthening an arc of security alliances in Asia as a countermeasure against an increasingly assertive China. That has dovetailed with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos’s efforts to boost his country’s territorial defense.

Beijing has opposed Washington’s alliance-building and has repeatedly vowed to defend its territorial interests at all costs.

The forum marked the anniversary of a 2016 ruling by an arbitration panel in The Hague, Netherlands that invalidated China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea based on the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. Beijing refused to join the Philippine-initiated arbitration, rejected the ruling and continues to defy it.

Dozens of protesters separately held a rally Friday to mark the anniversary of the arbitration ruling in suburban Quezon city, waving small Philippine flags and displaying posters that read: “China out!” and “Long live the arbitral ruling victory."

Australian Ambassador HK Yu said the June 17 incident at the shoal was “an escalation in a deeply concerning pattern of behavior by China … which threatens lives and creates risks of miscalculation and escalation.”

“The Philippines is not facing this challenge alone,” Yu said. “I can tell you this, you can count on Australia.”

"As allies, partners and friends, we stand united in navigating these uncertain waters and uphold the fundamental principles that safeguard our shared waters,” Ambassador Kazuya Endo of Japan told the forum that was attended by Manila-based diplomats and top Philippine security officials.

Japan, which has its own dispute with China in the East China Sea, has provided patrol ships and a coastal radar system to boost to the Philippines’ ability to defend its territorial interests in the South China Sea.

Philippine national security adviser Eduardo Ano called for international support in pushing for Chinese compliance to the arbitration ruling.

Manila, he said, would seek peaceful resolutions to the disputes but “we will continue to stand our ground and push back against coercion, interference, malign influence and other tactics that seeks to jeopardize our security.”

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New deal establishes a hotline Chinese and Philippine presidents can use to stop clashes at sea

 A recently signed agreement will open a direct line of communication between the presidential offices of China and the Philippines to help prevent any new confrontation from spiraling out of control in the disputed South China Sea, according to highlights of the accord seen by The Associated Press on Tuesday.

China and the Philippines have created such emergency telephone hotlines at lower levels in the past to better manage disputes, particularly in two fiercely disputed shoals where the Philippines has accused Chinese forces of increasingly hostile actions and China says Philippine ships have encroached despite repeated warnings.

The territorial disputes, however, have persisted since last year, sparking fears of a larger armed conflict that could involve the United States, which has repeatedly warned that it’s obligated to defend the Philippines, a key Asian treaty ally, if Filipino forces come under attack in the disputed waters.

U.S. Gen. Charles Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met Philippine military chief Gen. Romeo Brawner in Manila on Tuesday and discussed ways to further boost defense ties, enhance the militaries' ability to operate jointly and ensure regional ability, the Philippine military said.

During a confrontation between Chinese and Philippine forces at the Philippines-occupied Second Thomas Shoal in August 2023, the Philippine government said it was unable to reach Chinese officials through an established “maritime communication mechanism” for several hours. That emergency telephone hotline was arranged after Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in January 2023.

Chinese and Philippine officials dealing with the territorial disputes held talks in Manila on July 2, following a violent confrontation at the Second Thomas Shoal in which Chinese coast guard personnel reportedly wielded knives, an axe and improvised spears and Philippine navy personnel were injured. The Chinese forces also seized seven Philippine navy rifles, said Brawner, who demanded China return the firearms and pay for damages.

Both sides “recognized the need to strengthen the bilateral maritime communication mechanism on the South China Sea” and signed an arrangement “on improving Philippines-China maritime communication mechanisms,” the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila said in a statement after the talks in Manila, but did not provide a copy or details of the agreement.

A copy of the agreement's highlights, seen by the AP, said it “provides several channels for communication between the Philippines and China, specifically on maritime issues, through the representatives to be designated by their leaders."

The hotline talks could also be done “through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs counterparts, including at the foreign minister and vice foreign minister levels or through their designated representatives,” it said, and added without elaborating that Philippine officials were “in discussions with the Chinese side on the guidelines that will govern the implementation of this arrangement."

There was also a plan to set up a new communication channel between the Chinese and Philippine coast guards “once the corresponding memorandum of understanding” between them is concluded, according to the agreement.

During the talks in Manila, China and the Philippines agreed on two other confidence-boosting steps to intensify “cooperation between their respective coast guard authorities” and the possible convening of a maritime forum between Chinese and Philippine scientists and academic leaders.

“Both sides recognized that there is a need to restore trust, rebuild confidence and create conditions conducive to productive dialogue and interaction,” the Philippine department of foreign affairs statement said. It added that China and the Philippines “affirmed their commitment to de-escalate tensions without prejudice to their respective positions.”

It said that “there was substantial progress on developing measures to manage the situation at sea,” but acknowledged that “significant differences remain."

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