00:00This is the first time that the Philippine and Vietnam Coast Guard have joined forces
00:04for bilateral maritime exercises even though they belong to the West Philippine Sea and the South China Sea.
00:12I am live with Ian Cruz. Ian.
00:18Emil, even though the Philippines claims that Vietnam belongs to the West Philippine Sea and the South China Sea,
00:25this is the first time that the Philippine Coast Guard and the Vietnam Coast Guard have joined forces for bilateral maritime exercises.
00:38The Vietnam Coast Guard named the Philippine Coast Guard's water cannon
00:43as an asset in the West Philippine Sea near Corredor.
00:46But it is not a trigger, like the scenes near Scarborough Shoal or Ayungin Shoal,
00:51but part of the first bilateral maritime exercise of the two countries.
00:56The first mission is the firefighting exercise.
00:59There is a ship here that is being burned.
01:03That is why the Philippine Coast Guard is pouring water.
01:09And here, we can see, that is the Vietnamese Coast Guard.
01:15They will help to extinguish the fire in that small vessel.
01:21The importance of the exercise that we are conducting now is to improve our interoperability with foreign countries
01:30when it comes to search and rescue and other incidents in the sea, sir.
01:33The next maritime exercise is the search and rescue operation.
01:38The many victims were caught in the sea.
01:42An aerial survey was conducted by the Philippine Coast Guard's chopper
01:45to quickly find out the location of the victims in the sea.
01:49Their location was reported to the Vietnamese and Philippine Coast Guard near the area.
01:54The two coast guards deployed inflatable boats to rescue the victims.
02:00The speedboats of the Vietnamese and Philippine Coast Guard were the only ones to bring the victims to BRP Gabriela Silang.
02:07We will have a good collaboration and cooperation with the claimants of the West Philippine Sea.
02:14And being an ASEAN nation also, it is good that we have at least one direction,
02:23which is a rules-based approach of the Philippines.
02:26And we hope also that the Vietnam Coast Guard, particularly the Vietnam government,
02:31will also do away or follow with the Philippine government
02:37in enhancing or following the rules-based approach here in the West Philippine Sea.
02:45Although the bilateral exercise was conducted in the West Philippine Sea
02:49and Vietnam is a country's claimant in the West Philippine Sea,
02:53the Coast Guard hopes that it will not be viewed negatively by China
02:56that it is anchored in the South China Sea and that it is prepared for humanitarian missions.
03:03Hopefully, their treatment here will not be like that.
03:07And as I said earlier, this is purely a humanitarian exercise.
03:12This passing exercise is the last activity of the Vietnam Coast Guard with our Philippine Coast Guard.
03:18We will see that the Vietnamese Coast Guard salutes our Philippine Coast Guard troops.
03:27This is part of their salute to the host country before they return to Vietnam.
03:38And Emil, earlier, the Vietnam Coast Guard finished their five-day visit here in the Philippines.
03:46The Philippine Coast Guard hopes that this is not their last training together.
03:50Back to you, Emil.
03:51Thank you very much, Ian Cruz.
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