The Philippine Navy shrugged off the presence of Chinese ships near the multilateral maritime cooperative activity (MMCA) between the Philippines, Australia, Canada, and the United States in the West Philippine Sea.
"Not a cause of concern. We are also monitoring them. If they monitor us, we also monitor them," Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Philippine Navy spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, said on Thursday, August 8.
However, Trinidad also labeled the appearance of the three People's Liberation Army Navy vessels as 'dubious and inappropriate'.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines confirmed that three PLA Navy vessels, namely PLA-Navy Wuzhou (FSG-626) Jiangdao II class corvette, PLA-Navy Huangshan (FFG-570) Jiankai II class corvette, and PLA-Navy Quijing (FSG-668) Jiangdao II Class Corvette, tailed the exercises between the four countries.
The MMCA ran from August 7 to August 8.
The two-day activity seeks to showcase the collective commitment of the four countries 'to strengthen regional and international cooperation in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific'.
