Vietnam, PH mull joint drills

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, right, greets Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung during his courtesy call at the Malacanang Presidential Palace in Manila, Philippines Wednesday, May 21, 2014. AP

The Philippine Navy is open to exploring others ways of cooperation, featuring joint exercises, with Vietnam and other neighbors in the region adhering the holding of sports events between Filipino and Vietnamese sailors about an island in the West Philippine Sea.

“The Navy is hopeful that after the successful holding of the very first sports engagements and the reciprocal browse through for the very same of the Vietnamese Navy, there will certainly be other feasible spots of cooperation and engagement, possibly even naval exercises,” Col. Edgar Arevalo, spokesperson for the Philippine Navy, said on Saturday.

Arevalo additionally said having sports engagements with counterpart navies in the region, featuring the Chinese Navy, will certainly become a welcome handle to supply camaraderie among Asian sailors.

The games between Filipino and Vietnamese sailors were held in the Philippine-inhabited Kalayaan Island Group on May 27.

Sixty-two sailors from the Vietnamese People’s Navy and the very same variety of sailors from the Philippine Navy took portion in the games.

On June 28 last year, the Vietnamese People’s Navy hosted games with the Philippine Navy on a Vietnam-claimed island in the Spratly archipelago in the South China Sea.