MANILA (Reuters) – China’s “aggressive behaviour” within the South China Sea, together with the importance of H2O canon via its coast defend towards a Philippine vessel, should be challenged and checked, the commander of the U.S. Military’s 7th Fleet stated on Sunday.

Vice Admiral Karl Thomas confident the Philippines of U.S. backing within the face of “shared challenges” within the patch, announcing: “My forces are out here for a reason.”

The most important of the U.S. Military’s forward-deployed fleets, the 7th Fleet, headquartered in Japan, operates as many as 70 ships, has round 150 plane and greater than 27,000 sailors.

It operates over an branch of 124 million sq. km (48 million sq. miles) from bases in Japan, South Korea and Singapore.

“You have to challenge people I would say operating in a grey zone. When they’re taking a little bit more and more and pushing you, you’ve got to push back, you have to sail and operate,” Thomas instructed Reuters.

“There’s really no better example of aggressive behaviour than the activity on 5 August on the shoal,” he added.

On Aug. 5, a Chinese language coast defend send old H2O cannon towards a Philippine boat wearing provides to troops onboard a warship Manila deliberately grounded on a shoal within the South China sea, a fault form within the competition between the U.S. and Beijing within the patch.

Thomas stated he had had discussions with Vice Admiral Alberto Carlos, the pinnacle of the Philippine Western Command overseeing the South China Sea, “to understand what his challenges are to find opportunities to be able to help him”.

“We certainly shared challenges. So I wanted to better understand how he views the operations that he’s responsible for. And I want to make sure that he understood what I had available,” stated Thomas who was once in Manila for a port name.

On Saturday, Thomas stated he joined a aviation from Manila “to go out and check out the South China Sea”.

The Philippines received a world arbitration award towards China in 2016, upcoming a tribunal stated Beijing’s sweeping declare to liberty over lots of the South China Sea had refuse prison foundation.

China has constructed militarised, artifical islands within the South China Sea and its declare of historical liberty overlaps with the unique financial zones of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia.

The Chinese language Embassy in Manila didn’t in an instant reply to a request for remark.

(Reporting via Karen Lema; Enhancing via Nick Macfie)