The 19th Western Pacific Naval Forum Annual Meeting has opened on April 22, and the PLA has hosted the annual meeting of the forum again after 10 years, but the Philippine Navy will be absent from the 2024 annual meeting, and it is the only member state that is absent, so it is quite a gambling rhythm. Before the annual meeting of the Western Pacific Naval Forum, Philippine defense and security adviser Arnold publicly stated that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos was not aware of the "gentlemen's agreement" between the Duterte administration and China, and at the same time, Arnold said that if there was a "gentlemen's agreement" or a "secret agreement", the Philippine Marcos government would not recognize it. Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte publicly stated that he had an agreement with China that the Philippines would not repair and reinforce the Philippine Navy landing ship stranded on Ren'ai Jiao.
After participating in the trilateral summit between the United States, Japan and the Philippines, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos held a press conference on his return to the Philippines, openly threatening that the United States would use the "U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty" to protect the Philippines, and announced the red line proposed by the United States to touch the Philippines, as long as Filipino soldiers die in the conflict, the United States will use the treaty to protect the Philippines. Judging from the official statement of the Philippines, it is determined to provoke China on the South China Sea issue, because since it does not recognize the "gentlemen's agreement", the Philippines will insist on maintaining and strengthening the landing ships.
When China hosted the annual meeting of the Western Pacific Naval Forum, the Philippines made clear its position and did not send representatives to attend the annual meeting; in fact, the Philippines was put on the table by the United States, because the United States sent the commander of the Pacific Fleet to attend the annual meeting held by China, because the participation of the United States directly shattered Manila's glass heart. The Philippines is trying to reflect the Philippines' hardline stance by refusing to participate in the annual meeting, and the "boss" behind the scenes is directly participating in the annual meeting of the Western Pacific Naval Forum, so it will embarrass the Philippines very much.
In fact, the Pentagon has been trying to communicate with the People's Liberation Army, and recently there was a video call with the Secretary of Defense, although the United States is actively encircling and containing China, but it has not given up dialogue with China, which is completely different from the Philippines. U.S. President Joe Biden has publicly stated before that Sino-US relations are "confrontation, competition and cooperation", and it is obvious that the United States has maintained contact with China when using military force to deter China, so as to avoid unnecessary miscalculations, while the Philippines is bent on insisting on confrontation and refusing to carry out necessary communication, which obviously has no due bearing.
The Philippine provocation in the South China Sea is because of the instigation of the United States behind the back, in fact, when Marcos was president of the Philippines, he did not violate the agreement reached between China and the Philippines, so he did not launch a provocation on the South China Sea issue, but since February 2023, the Philippines has changed its position, openly created incidents in the South China Sea, and has made further development in the military field with the United States The joint military exercise has begun, and the US Navy has the CVN 71 Roosevelt aircraft carrier strike group to support it in the South China Sea.