SAMASAMA Exercise started, this will run until Oct. 13 2023, aimed to promote the rule-based international order as well as the free and open Indo-Pacific Region. Organizers stressed the naval exercise is not directed at the Chinese. The drill is composed of; the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSD), Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (UKRN), United States Navy (USN) and the Philippine Navy (PN).
The exercise will include discussions and interoperability maneuvers with. The Armed Forces of the Philippines earlier said the Royal New Zealand Navy and Indonesian Navy were involved in the exercise as observers. The SAMASAMA Exercise “used to be a bilateral exercise but we thought of expanding it to become a multilateral exercise,” PN chief Vice Admiral Toribio Adaci said.
“This is strengthening our competencies, the technical competencies of our sailors and of course the Marines, this is promoting interoperability, this is promoting alliances and partnerships and it does not necessarily have to be conducted in a particular place,” he said, referring to the ongoing exercise.
Adaci added that the 2016 Arbitral Award on the West Philippine Sea “speaks for itself and the ruling upheld the sovereign rights of the Filipinos in the West Philippine Sea and that is basically following international law and this is what we would promote, a rules-based international order.”
US 7th Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Karl Thomas said this year’s SAMASAMA Exercise aims to prove “that the global maritime commons are used by everybody and everybody wants the global maritime commons to be free and open so our navies inherently sail and operate together.”
He noted that eight navies participating in the exercise strictly adhere to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
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