US, Philippines Follow Taiwan Drills With Biggest Exercises
(Bloomberg) -- The US and the Philippines kicked off the largest version of their flagship military exercise in more than 30 years on Tuesday, a high-profile display of their renewed alliance that includes live-fire training targeting a decommissioned vessel near the South China Sea.
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The annual Balikatan exercise comes just a day after China concluded its own drills around Taiwan and focuses on developing maritime security and amphibious operations at a time Manila and Washington are seeking to push back against Chinese aggression in the South China Sea.
The presence of more than 17,600 military personnel almost doubles last year’s level, according to the US Embassy in Manila.
This year’s exercises are “another defining moment” in the “deepening alliance” between the Philippines and the US, the Southeast Asian nation’s military chief, General Andres Centino, said at an opening ceremony.
The highlight will be littoral live-fire drills in Zambales province near South China Sea where both American and Philippine troops will target a decommissioned ship to rehearse a maritime strike, said Major General Marvin Licudine of the Philippine Army. The drills aim to enhance the Philippines’ defensive capabilities and maritime security awareness, he said.
The exercises mark the culmination of US efforts to restore ties with the Philippines under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., whose predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, often snubbed Washington in favor of Beijing. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met their Philippine counterparts in Washington on Tuesday, seeking to strengthen collaboration in the Indo-Pacific region.
“We’ve come together at an historic moment in our alliance,” Austin told a briefing. “We’re building on those bonds to bring greater security, stability and prosperity to the Indo-Pacific.”
He said commitments made Tuesday would spur even deeper cooperation, and the two sides reaffirmed that their mutual-defense treaty remains the bedrock of cooperation.
The military drills in Manila and top-level dialogue in Washington speak “to the strength and significance of US-Philippine relationship,” Heather Variava, chargé d’affaires at the US embassy in Manila, said at the kickoff ceremony. More than 100 soldiers from Australia will also join the military exercises, while representatives from partner nations will be observers.
The exercises come the same week China held multiple drills near Taiwan after President Tsai Ing-wen returned from a visit to the US, where she met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other US lawmakers. The guided missile destroyer USS Milius also conducted “freedom of navigation” operations in the South China Sea on Monday near the Spratly Islands, passing through waters claimed by Beijing.
Responding to the holding of US-Philippine drills, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Monday the military cooperation between the two countries “must not interfere in South China Sea disputes” or cause harm to “China’s territorial sovereignty, maritime rights and security interests.”
The long-planned Balikatan exercises with the Philippines aren’t expected to provoke Beijing much, said Carl Schuster, a former operations director at US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center.
“It has a South China Sea angle and will raise tensions as a result but not to a dangerous or unusual degree,” he said, adding that the exercises are officially directed at improving Manila’s ability to defend its western territories. “Beijing is more focused on intimidating Taiwan and signaling to the US that it will not be easy to assist Taiwan in the event of a conflict.”
Manila has vowed to pursue “collective defense” efforts with Washington around the South China Sea in a bid to counter a record number of Chinese incursions in disputed waters. As part of the rapprochement, the Philippines last week identified four new sites that the US will have access to under an expanded defense agreement, with three of them near Taiwan.
‘Encircle and Contain’
The new locations will bring the number of military sites the US can access in the Philippines to nine, including five existing ones, under the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. The pact allows the US to rotate its troops for prolonged stays as well as build and operate facilities on those bases in the Southeast Asian country.
Yet in a sign of how Marcos has to balance his nation’s ties to both Washington and Beijing — China is the Philippines’ biggest trading partner — he’s said the new sites the US will have access to can’t be used for offensive operations.
China has criticized the plan regardless, with its embassy in Manila describing it as part of America’s attempt to “encircle and contain” the world’s second-biggest economy. Beijing asserts rights to more than 80% of the South China Sea, whose other claimants are the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Brunei.
But just because those nations have tensions with China over its vast claims doesn’t mean they are lining up behind the US.
“Most of the region is in ‘wait, watch and see mode,’” said Schuster. “They want the US to inhibit China’s behavior but do not trust America’s willingness to do so over the long term. So, they are also trying to maintain good relations with both powers.”
--With assistance from Colum Murphy and Philip Glamann.
(Updates with US comment on dialogue in seventh paragraph.)
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