- Posted 07 Feb 2017 17:02
- Updated 08 Feb 2017 02:11

File photo of Chinese navy in the South China Sea. (Photo: AFP)
MANILA: Manila expects China to try to build on a reef off the coast of the Philippines, the country’s defence secretary said on Tuesday (Feb 7), adding this would be “unacceptable” in the flashpoint waterway.
In an interview with AFP, Delfin Lorenzana said he believed China would eventually reclaim Scarborough Shoal, just 230 kilometres from the main Philippine island of Luzon.



Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Friday in Tokyo. “We stand firmly, 100 percent, shoulder to shoulder with you and the Japanese people,” he told Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan.
