China offers joint exercise proposal

China offers joint exercise proposal

MANILA (AFP): China offered on Tuesday to hold joint exercises with the Philippines, one of its rivals to disputed South China Sea islands, to control piracy and drugs in the area, Filipino Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon said.

The offer was relayed to him by visiting Chinese Agriculture Minister Chen Yaobang, Siazon told reporters, adding Manila would study the proposal.

The two countries are among six claimants to the Spratly chain, which commands key oil tanker routes and is itself believed to sit on vast oil and mineral deposits. The others are Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Chen, whose ministry is in charge of fisheries, wants the two countries to explore the possibility of holding "joint exercises with other claimant countries to control piracy in the region and smuggling of drugs," Siazon said.