Philippines, Vietnam conduct 1st joint drills amid South China Sea tensions

Washington — The Philippines and Vietnamese coast guards conducted their first joint drills Friday in firefighting, rescue, and medical response in Manila Bay, off the west coast of Luzon, the Philippines' main island, leading into the South China Sea. This exercise represents the first such joint activity between the coast guards of the two countries amid ongoing territorial disputes with each other and, more significantly with China, which claims almost the entire South China Sea as its own....