The joint naval exercises — carried out over two days — are likely to antagonise China, which claims to control the entire contested maritime area,
Euonews reports.
India and the Philippines staged joint sail and naval exercises in the South China Sea for the first time — a high-profile military deployment likely to provoke Beijing, which lays claim to the contested waters.
Filipino armed forces chief of staff General Romeo Brawner said Monday that the exercises — which began on Sunday — had so far been successful.
When asked if Chinese forces carried out a response, Brawner said: "we did not experience any untoward incident but we were still shadowed. We expected that already.”
Chinese navy and coast guard ships have kept watch from a distance in past joint patrols with other foreign navies, the Philippine military claimed.
Beijing has separate territorial disputes with both India and the Philippines, and a long-standing regional rivalry with New Delhi.
It has laid claim to virtually the entire South China Sea, a key global trade route in the Western Pacific Ocean that borders the Southeast Asian mainland. Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also lay claims to parts of the waters, disputes over which have led to tense confrontations.
The Philippines has staged patrols with foreign navies such as the US, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and France in the past to push for freely navigating the waters and strengthen deterrence against China.
