PH defense chief attends China meeting

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin is in China to discuss regional security cooperation with his Chinese and Southeast Asian counterparts.

A defense department statement said Gazmin and the other defense officials would tackle multilateral cooperation to enhance peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.

This is “amid an increasingly complex security environment where defense establishments are being called to address both traditional and nontraditional security issues,” the department said.

“It is also anticipated that Asean-China security relations will be (discussed),” it said.

The meeting is taking place amid tensions between China and the Philippines over Chinese reclamation and construction activities in the West Philippine Sea, a part of the disputed South China Sea.

The Philippines has filed an arbitration case against China over the issue.

The US military is reportedly planning to fly one of its planes near China’s reclaimed areas to prove there is freedom of navigation in the contested sea.