Philippines, US launch smaller military exercises

MANILA: The Philippines and US launched annual military exercises in Manila on Monday but the longtime allies scaled them down in line with President Rodrigo Duterte’s pivot to China and Russia.

Duterte has in his 10 months in office sought to weaken ties with the US, the Philippines’ mutual defense treaty partner and former colonial ruler that he has said is diminishing as a global superpower.

The 12-day “Balikatan” war games that opened on Monday will involve fewer than half the number of soldiers than in 2015, when they were steered by Duterte’s pro-American predecessor, Benigno Aquino.

There will also be no focus on boosting the Philippines’ maritime defense capabilities, which in previous years had been widely seen as a show of strength against Beijing over competing claims in the South China Sea.

Duterte has reversed Aquino’s policy of challenging China forcefully on the territorial row, electing to instead pursue closer economic, political and military relations with Beijing.

While on a trip to Beijing last year Duterte, a self-described socialist, announced that he was in the “ideological flow” of China’s communist rulers.

Much of Duterte’s criticism appeared to have been triggered by American criticism of his drug war, which has claimed thousands of lives and been condemned by rights groups as a possible crime against humanity.