Amid China's "worsening" activities against Philippine vessels in the West Philippine Sea on Saturday and Sunday, Philippines and US military officials discussed opportunities to increase military cooperation in a phone conversation on Monday.

Col. Xerxes Trinidad, AFP public affairs chief, said the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff, General Romeo Brawner Jr. and General Charles Brown Jr, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff discussed the current security environment in a phone conversation on Monday.

Brawner, who witnessed the use of water cannons by Chinese ships on Philippine vessels in a resupply mission to a grounded Navy ship in Ayungin Shoal, also told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo that the there is no need yet to invoke the mutual defense treaty (MDT) with the United States.

"We don't need to invoke the MDT yet because the Mutual Defense Treaty says that (it is) in case of an armed attack and (water) cannoning is not considered an armed attack so China was very careful... (it is) called the grayzone tactics. But for us these are illegal, coercive, aggressive, dangerous and deceptive actions," he said.

On Saturday, Chinese vessels blasted water cannons and undertook dangerous manuevers against a fisheries ship performing a humanitarian mission in Scarborough Shoal.

Trinidad said Brawner and Brown ''agreed to maintain close coordination amidst worsening illegal activities of the China Coast Guard targeting rotation and reprovisioning missions and patrols of Philippine government vessels in the West Philippine Sea. They also discussed mutual strategic security interests and opportunities for increased military cooperation."

"The call reaffirms the AFP’s commitment to the Philippine-United States alliance under the framework of the Mutual Defense Treaty and in upholding a rules-based international order and the shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific Region," he added.

In an interview with reporters in Camp Aguinaldo, Brawner said during their conversation Brown reiterated the US commitment "to continuously support the Philippines every time we have our resupply mission."

"They support us in terms of providing information, they will not actually come to escort us but in terms of information, the very vital information that we need are coming from them," he said.

Brawner said he and Brown also talked about the joint patrols, the Balikatan exercises and EDCA (Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement) during the phone conversation.

"We talked about various topics that interest both the United States and the Philippines. so it includes EDCA sites, our joint maritime patrol and air patrols, the balikatan exercises, we discussed it in general because the details will be tackled by our staff," he said..Robina Asido/DMS