Philippines 'confident' Chinese missiles 'not directed at us'

The Philippines is "confident" that the missiles China recently deployed in the South China Sea, including in one reef declared by a tribunal in The Hague as part of Filipino territory, are not directed at Manila, a spokesman of President Rodrigo Duterte has said.


"With our recently developed close relationship and friendship with China, we are confident that those missiles are not directed at us," Harry Roque said on Friday, in a statement described by critics as the "weakest possible response".

But Roque added that the Philippines remains "concerned" about the deployments, in what he referred to as "contested areas" in the South China Sea, also referred to in the Philippines as West Philippine Sea.
 [aljazeera.com]
 4/5/18
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