In this photo provided by the Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine Coast Guard personnel treat wounded fishermen inside their vessel at the disputed South China Sea on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025. Photo: Philippine Coast Guard via AP

A dilapidated but still active Philippine Navy ship BRP Sierra Madre sits at the Second Thomas Shoal, locally known as Ayungin Shoal, at the disputed South China Sea on Aug. 22, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

The Philippine Navy transported food and other supplies to a territorial ship outpost in a shoal in the South China Sea without any confrontation with Chinese forces guarding the disputed area, officials said on Friday (November 15, 2024).

The Philippine delivery of supplies and military personnel on Thursday to the Second Thomas Shoal was the third such trip that did not lead to any confrontation since July, when both sides signed a rare deal to stop an alarming spike in violent confrontations.

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“The Armed Forces of the Philippines continues to uphold its mandate of safeguarding Philippine sovereignty and ensuring the welfare of its stationed personnel in the West Philippine Sea,” military spokesperson Col Xerxes Trinidad said, using the Philippine name for the South China Sea.

“There were no untoward incidents during the mission,” Mr. Trinidad said.

The Philippines occupied the shoal by permanently beaching a navy ship in its shallows in 1999, prompting China, which also claims it, to surround the atoll with its coast guard and naval forces in what has been a continuing territorial standoff.

Called Ayungin by the Philippines and Ren’ai Jiao by China, the shoal had been the most dangerous flashpoint in the South China Sea and became the scene of increasingly violent confrontations starting last year that alarmed other governments, led by the United States.

The deal, which has not been made public, outlines a temporary arrangement that lets the Philippines transport supplies and fresh batches of Filipino forces to Manila’s ship outpost without clashing with China’s coast guard, navy and suspected militia ships guarding the shoal.

Neither side conceded its territorial claims under the deal, which only applies to the Second Thomas Shoal, according to Philippine officials.

The agreement was reached after China agreed to drop a demand for the Philippines to notify China in advance of any trip to the shoal and for Chinese forces to board Philippine supply vessels for inspection, two Philippine officials told The Associated Press in July. They spoke on condition of anonymity for lack of authority to discuss the negotiations publicly.

It’s the first known agreement by China with any one rival claimant country over a specific shoal in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety.

Before the deal was reached, Chinese coast guard and navy forces had used powerful water cannons and dangerous blocking manoeuvres to prevent Philippine supply vessels from reaching Manila’s fragile outpost at the shoal — the long-grounded and rusting warship, the BRP Sierra Madre.

In the worst confrontation, Chinese forces on speedboats repeatedly rammed and then boarded two Philippine navy boats on June 17 to prevent Filipino personnel from transferring food and other supplies including firearms to the BRP Sierra Madre, the Philippine military said.

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The Chinese forces seized the Philippine navy boats and damaged them with machetes and improvised spears. They also seized seven M4 rifles, which were packed in cases, and other supplies in a chaotic faceoff that wounded several Filipino navy personnel. The assault was captured in video and photos that were later made public by Philippine officials.

China and the Philippines blamed each other for the confrontation. The United States, Japan and Australia were among those who condemned the Chinese actions at the shoal.

While clashes have stopped at the Second Thomas Shoal, sporadic confrontations have continued elsewhere in the South China Sea. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and, at times, Indonesia, have also been involved in the long-seething territorial disputes in the busy waterway.

This frame grab from handout video footage taken and released on August 25, 2024 by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) shows a Chinese coast Guard ship (right) in a collision with the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) vessel BRP Datu Sanday, near Sabina Shoal in disputed waters of the South China Sea.
| Photo Credit: AFP/PHILIPPINE COAST GUARD

China’s actions in the South China Sea are “patently illegal”, the Philippines’ defence secretary said on Monday (August 26, 2024) following a clash in disputed waters on Sunday (August 25, 2024) over what Manila said was a resupply mission for fishermen.

“We have to expect these kinds of behaviour from China because this is a struggle. We have to be ready to anticipate and to get used to these kinds of acts of China which are patently illegal as we have repeatedly said,” Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro told reporters.

Manila’s South China Sea task force accused Chinese vessels of ramming and using water canons near Sabina shoal against a Philippine fisheries vessel transporting food, fuel and medicine for Filipino fishermen.

The Chinese coast guard said the Philippine vessel “ignored repeated serious warnings and deliberately approached and rammed” China’s law enforcement boat, resulting in a collision.

Asked if the latest incident would trigger treaty obligations between the United States and the Philippines, Teodoro said: “That is putting the cart before the horse. Let us deter an armed attack, that is the more important thing.”

U.S. officials including President Joe Biden have reaffirmed Washington’s “ironclad commitment” to aid the Philippines against armed attacks on its vessels and soldiers in the South China Sea.

“Everybody is too focused on armed attack, let’s make ourselves strong enough so that does not happen,” Teodoro said.

The Chinese embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Monday is a public holiday in the Philippines.

The clash on Sunday had overshadowed efforts to rebuild trust and better manage disputes in the South China Sea after months of confrontations.

China claims sovereignty over nearly all of the South China Sea, including areas claimed by the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Brunei.

An international arbitral tribunal in 2016 ruled that China’s claim had no basis under international law, a decision Beijing has rejected.

Wang Yi attends the ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference with China on July 26, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has warned the Philippines over the U.S. intermediate-range missile deployment, saying such a move could fuel regional tensions and spark an arms race.

“The United States deployed its ‘Typhon Missile System’ to the Philippines as part of the joint military drills earlier this year. It was not fired during the exercises,” a Philippine military official later said, without giving details on how long it would stay in the country.

“China-Philippines relations are now at a crossroads and dialogue and consultation are the right way,” Mr. Wang told Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo during a meeting in Vientiane on July 26, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

Mr. Wang said there are challenges to maintain healthy relations between the two countries as Philippines has “repeatedly violated the consensus of both sides and its own commitments”.

“If the Philippines introduces the U.S. intermediate-range missile system, it will create tension and confrontation in the region and trigger an arms race, which is completely not in line with the interests and wishes of the Filipino people,” Mr. Wang said.

China and Philippines are locked in a confrontation in the disputed South China Sea and their encounters have grown more tense as Beijing presses its claims to shoals in waters that Manila says are well within its exclusive economic zone.

Mr. Wang said China has recently reached a temporary arrangement with the Philippines on the transportation and replenishment of humanitarian supplies to Ren’ai Jiao — also known as the Second Thomas Shoal — in order to maintain the stability of the maritime situation.

An aerial view shows the BRP Sierra Madre on the contested Second Thomas Shoal, locally known as Ayungin, in the South China Sea, March 9, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

China and the Philippines reached a deal they hope will end confrontations at the most fiercely disputed shoal in the South China Sea, the Philippine government said Sunday.

The Philippines occupies Second Thomas Shoal but China also claims it, and increasingly hostile clashes at sea have sparked fears of larger conflicts that could involve the United States.

The crucial deal was reached Sunday, after a series of meetings between Philippine and Chinese diplomats in Manila and exchanges of diplomatic notes that aimed to establish a mutually acceptable arrangement at the shoal, which Filipinos call Ayungin and the Chinese call Ren’ai Jiao, without conceding either side’s territorial claims.

Two Philippine officials, who had knowledge of the negotiations, confirmed the deal to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity and the government later issued a brief statement announcing the deal without providing details.

“Both sides continue to recognize the need to deescalate the situation in the South China Sea and manage differences through dialogue and consultation and agree that the agreement will not prejudice each other’s positions in the South China Sea,” the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila said.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced shortly after midnight Sunday that they discussed with the Philippines “managing the situation at Ren’ai Jiao and reached provisional arrangement with the Philippines on humanitarian resupply of living necessities.”

Neither side released the text of the agreement.

China has disputes with several governments over land and sea borders, many of them in the South China Sea. The rare deal with the Philippines could spark hope that similar arrangements could be forged by Beijing with other countries to avoid clashes while thorny territorial issues remain unresolved. It remains to be seen, however, if the deal could be implemented successfully and how long it will last.

Chinese coast guard and other forces have used powerful water cannons and dangerous blocking maneuvers to prevent food and other supplies from reaching Filipino navy personnel at Manila’s outpost at the shoal, on a long-grounded and rusting warship, the BRP Sierra Madre.

The yearslong territorial standoff has flared repeatedly since last year.

In the worst confrontation, Chinese forces on motorboats repeatedly rammed and then boarded two Philippine navy boats on June 17 to prevent Filipino personnel from transferring food and other supplies including firearms to the ship outpost in the shallows of the shoal, according to the Philippine government.

The Chinese seized the Philippine navy boats and damaged them with machetes and improvised spears. They also seized seven M4 rifles, which were packed in cases, and other supplies. The violent faceoff wounded several Filipino navy personnel, including one who lost his thumb, in a chaotic skirmish that was captured in video and photos that were later made public by Philippine officials.

China and the Philippines blamed each other for the confrontation and each asserted their own sovereign rights over the shoal.

The United States and its key Asian and Western allies, including Japan and Australia, condemned the Chinese acts at the shoal and called for the rule of law and freedom of navigation to be upheld in the South China Sea, a key global trade route with rich fishing areas and undersea gas deposits.

In addition to China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have been locked in separate but increasingly tense territorial disputes in the waterway, which is regarded as a potential flashpoint and a delicate fault line in the U.S.-China regional rivalry. The U.S. military has deployed Navy ships and fighter jets for decades in what it calls freedom of navigation and overflight patrols, which China has opposed and regards as a threat to regional stability.

Washington has no territorial claims in the disputed waters but has repeatedly warned that it is obligated to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.

One of the two Philippine officials said the June 17 confrontation prompted Beijing and Manila to hasten on-and-off talks on an arrangement that would prevent confrontations at Second Thomas Shoal.

During final meetings in the last four days, two Chinese demands that had been key sticking points were removed from the draft deal.

China had previously said it would allow food, water and other basic supplies to be transported by the Philippines to its forces at the shoal if Manila agreed not to bring construction materials to fortify the crumbling ship and to give China advance notice and the right to inspect the ships for those materials, the officials said.

The Philippines rejected those conditions, and the final deal did not include them, according to the Philippine officials.