This week’s visit to Hawaiʻi by the president of Taiwan has made headlines around the world. Taiwan's government has said the president's trip to several Pacific island nations could lead to another round of Chinese military exercises in the South China Sea. But the activities of another regional power are also drawing attention.
When you hear about military movements in the South China Sea, they often involve Chinese ships.
But it is a Russian submarine that has recently been the focus in waters just off the Philippines and within the country's “exclusive economic zone.”
On Monday, the president of the Philippines called the development “very worrisome.”
Local media quoted Philippine naval officials as saying it's a stealth attack submarine — one of the newest in the Russian fleet.
It is a hybrid model using both diesel and electric propulsion, and Russian media have reported that it was recently moved from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific to increase Russia's naval presence in the region.
While the submarine can use stealth technology to move unobtrusively through international waters, that was not the case in the most recent deployment.
The Philippine Navy sent a guided missile frigate to track the submarine as it traveled along the surface of the water, making a very visible presence.
The state-run Russian news agency Tass said the submarine took part in exercises off Malaysia in late November and was on its way back to its home port in the Russian Far East.
Just a few months ago, Russia and China held extensive naval and air exercises across the Pacific and Arctic Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea involving more than 400 warships, submarines and support vessels, along with more than 120 aircraft and some 90,000 troops.
