South China Sea Getting Crowded?

Look who else just showed up in the troubled South China Seas! The French surveillance frigate Vendémiaire is arriving in Manila for a four-day goodwill visit from March 18 to 21. The visit is:

“to promote friendship and cooperation between the Philippines and France as nations of the Pacific.”

As part of its functions in navigation police and fishery protection, the ship of 92 crew personnel, including 12 officers, continuously “patrols, informs, and deals with trouble makers.”

It also serves as deterrent force and participates in multilateral exercises and many bilateral cooperation activities with navies in the region.

Very interesting timing--and not just because of the US/China confrontation. Lost in all the excitement with our surveillance craft confrontation, the Philippines were simultaneously making noises about the Spratly Islands, including them in Philippines' territorial waters under the newly-signed Philippines baselines law. Which, naturally, made China rather upset.

So why are the French visiting Manila? Looks like a gesture of support, to me. But, as China envoys cancel their scheduled meetings with Philippines leaders and Manila ratchets up the rhetoric, it's also a really neat time to park a surveillance platform in Manila.

Who knows? We might even be seeing the initial stages of another round of island-grabbing in the South China Sea.

I mean, with "major celebrations" PLANned for April...what better way to get the citizenry ginned up to support...oh...a large carrier building program...than a couple of naval squabbles?