US, Filipino forces start war drills near Taiwan
MANILA, Philippines – Thousands of American and Filipino forces began some of their largest combat exercises in years on Monday. The drills will include live-fire maneuvers, aircraft assaults, urban warfare and beach landings in a showcase of U.S. firepower in the northern Philippines near its sea border with Taiwan.
The annual exercises, called Balikatan – Tagalog for shoulder-to-shoulder – will run up to April 8 with nearly 9,000 navy, marines, air force and army troops, including 5,100 American military personnel, to strengthen the longtime treaty allies’ “capabilities and readiness for real-world challenges,” U.S. and Philippine military officials said.
China will likely frown on the war drills given their relative proximity to Taiwan, which it claims as Chinese territory, but organizers said the exercises don’t regard any particular country as a target.
“The U.S. military and Armed Forces of the Philippines will train together to expand and advance shared tactics, techniques, and procedures that strengthen our response capabilities and readiness for real-world challenges,” said Maj. Gen. Jay Bargeron, the U.S. 3rd Marine Division’s commanding general. “Our alliance remains a key source of strength and stability in the Indo-pacific region.”
First staged in 1991, the Balikatan exercises are anchored on the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, which commits the United States and the Philippines to come to the aid of the other in case of an attack.
But the governor of northern Cagayan province, where amphibious landings with limited live-fire maneuvers were scheduled to be held in the coastal town of Claveria this week, has opposed any joint exercise utilizing gunfire, fearing it could antagonize China.
“The military consulted and asked me, but I said I cannot allow any live-fire exercise. Any exercise is OK, but livefire,” Cagayan Governor Manuel Mamba
told the AP by telephone. “We have to engage China, but not in a war, because I know Taiwan is a powder keg.”
China, along with the U.S. and Taiwan, has expressed interest in investing in Cagayan, which has underdeveloped agricultural and related industries, Mamba said, adding, “I’m not pro-china, I’m pro-cagayan.”
A Philippine military official said the beach landing exercises would proceed in Claveria without any live-fire training.
The combat exercises in the northern Philippines are being held amid heightened tensions between Taiwan and China. But Zagala said most of the military maneuvers had been planned a year ago and did not consider the recurring tensions in the Taiwan Strait.
In what it calls a warning to Taiwan independence supporters and their foreign allies, China has been staging threatening exercises and flying military planes near the island’s airspace, including on Feb. 24, when Russia began its invasion of Ukraine.
Chinese officials led by President Xi Jinping say they are committed to using peaceful means to bring Taiwan under Beijing’s control. The U.S. has consistently expressed its support for ensuring that Taiwan can defend itself.