Philippines slams China's swarm of forces near shoal

The Philippine defence chief condemned China's deployment of a swarm of armed coast guard forces, backed by a helicopter and a drone, closer to the Philippines' military outpost in a fiercely disputed atoll in the South China Sea.

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Its military also vowed to defend the offshore territory, the scene of repeated, tense faceoffs.

The latest flareup in the long-seething territorial disputes around the Second Thomas Shoal came up in closed-door talks between Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro and his visiting Australian counterpart, Richard Marles.

Philippine military chief Gen. Romero Brawner Jr. said Marles renewed Australia’s commitment to help defend the rule of law in a region “experiencing the pressure that the rules-based order is being placed under.”

China's actions and its “nebulous” territorial claims in the disputed waters “are a matter not only of concern, but of condemnation because these are gross violations of international law,” Teodoro said in a joint news conference with Marles, when asked about the latest Chinese actions. “We need to stand up to this,” he added.

“We work really closely with the Philippines in terms of asserting the rules-based order in the South China Sea,” Marles added. “That's really important for us to jointly do. We understand that in that work, there will be an interaction between defence forces.”