MANILA, PHILIPPINES (AP) – U.S. and Philippine forces on Tuesday launched the largest combat exercise in decades in the disputed South China Sea and Taiwan Strait in the Philippines and its waters.
The annual exercise of the longtime treaty allies, known as Balikatan, which means “shoulder to shoulder” in Tagalog, will run through April 28 and involve more than 17,600 military personnel. This would be the latest display of American firepower in Asia, as the Biden administration strengthens a series of alliances to better confront China, including a possible confrontation over Taiwan.
This is virtually all China claims, under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., by facilitating joint military exercises with the United States and allowing another group of American troops to stay there. This is consistent with the Philippines’ efforts to defend its territorial claims in the South China Sea. Added military camps for the Philippine Army as part of the 2014 Defense Agreement.
In a sign of deeping defense cooperation, the Philippine foreign and defense secretaries will meet their American counterparts in Washington on Tuesday to discuss the American military presence and proposed joint naval patrols, officials said.
Washington and Beijing have been on a collision course over the long-seething territorial disputes involving China, the Philippines and four other governments, and Beijing’s goal of annexing Taiwan, by force if necessary.
China last week warned against the intensifying U.S. military deployment to the region. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in a regular news briefing in Beijing that it “would only lead to more tensions and less peace and stability in the region.”
The Balikatan exercises opened in the Philippines a day after China concluded three days of combat drills that simulated sealing off Taiwan, following Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last week in California that infuriated Beijing.
On Monday, the U.S. 7th Fleet deployed guided-missile destroyer USS Milius within 12 nautical miles off Mischief Reef, a Manila-claimed coral outcrop which China seized in the mid-1990s and turned into one of seven missile-protected island bases in the South China Sea’s hotly contested Spratlys archipelago. For years, the U.S. military has undertaken freedom of navigation operations like this to challenge China’s vast territorial claims.
The 7th Fleet said, “As long as some nations continue to assert and enforce restrictions on rights beyond their own jurisdiction under international law, the United States will continue to maintain maritime rights and freedoms guaranteed to all.” I will keep it,” he said.
