Taiwan's coast guard plans its first visit to the Philippines in 53 years as sea ties deepen

Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration plans to send a ship carrying 100 officers and students to the Philippines in October 2027, Nikkei Asia reported on Monday, Oct. 19. If it goes ahead, it would be the first such visit in 53 years and the first known since 1974, as Taipei and Manila take small but deliberate steps to work together at sea after decades of distance.

The report said rising pressure from Chinese vessels on both governments is driving the change. A senior Taiwanese official involved in the cooperation, speaking without being named, told the paper that the two neighbours on the first island chain face the same expansionist and coercive behaviour, and that Beijing is pressing false maritime claims with both military and non-military ships such as coast guard and research vessels. The official said closer coordination and an exchange of experience on maritime security were therefore important.

Both coast guards have been busy. Taiwan's coast guard fired water cannon at a Chinese fishing boat near Dongsha Island in the South China Sea on Oct. 1, used close-range manoeuvres to push four Chinese coast guard ships away from Kinmen last week, and on Sunday tracked and drove off 16 Chinese coast guard, research and fishing vessels around Taiwan and Dongsha. The Philippines has also driven away Chinese maritime militia and research ships in the past two weeks, according to the report.

The planned visit follows a transfer of hardware. Taiwan's coast guard confirmed in September that a retired patrol vessel had gone to the Philippines through the non-profit We Protect Our Seas Foundation. The ship, the former Taiwanese patrol vessel Kinmen, was commissioned by the Philippine Coast Guard as BRP Sarangani in early October. Built in 2008, it is about 61 metres long and displaces around 688 tons. The foundation said it is for civilian work such as patrols, search and rescue and disaster relief off Mindanao, and Taiwan's ocean affairs minister Kuan Bi-ling said the terms bar its use against Taiwanese fishing boats.

Taiwan News reported that there has also been talk of retired Taiwanese navy ships being handed to the Philippines, but Taiwan's defence ministry declined to comment. Taiwan's foreign minister has confirmed plans for an additional representative office in Cebu.

Lii Wen, deputy secretary-general of Taiwan's National Security Council, has said Taiwan is learning from the Philippine practice of publicising Chinese ship movements in the South China Sea, and that more countries should disclose coercive behaviour together so that Beijing cannot single out the few that speak up.

Analysts quoted in the report stressed the military geography. Oriana Skylar Mastro of Stanford University said the northern Philippines and Japan's southwestern islands are the only places within combat radius of Taiwan, and that closer links make it more likely Manila would allow operations from its soil in Taiwan's defence. Dan Blumenthal, a former senior Pentagon official, said the visit and the ship donation are modest in material terms but matter as signals. He said the first priority should be reliable channels to handle incidents involving fishermen where the two exclusive economic zones overlap, followed by search and rescue, disaster response, maritime domain awareness and joint training.

Those fishing incidents carry history. In 2013 Philippine coast guard personnel opened fire on the Taiwanese fishing boat Guang Da Xing No. 28, killing a crew member and badly damaging relations. A 2015 fisheries enforcement agreement committed both sides to avoid violence or excessive force and to notify each other in advance of enforcement actions against the other side's boats in overlapping waters.

Manila reaffirmed its one-China policy last month, while saying that it does not prevent economic, cultural and functional cooperation with Taiwan, Taiwan News reported.