Manila (EFE).- The Armies of the United States and the Philippines began on Tuesday the largest joint military exercises in more than 30 years, maneuvers that consolidate the renewed military alliance between the two allies in the midst of an escalation of tensions with China in the Sea South and around Taiwan.
The annual exercises, called “Balikatan”, will bring together more than 17,000 troops this year (12,000 US soldiers and 5,000 Filipinos), almost double the number in 2022.
For the first time, they will include live fire with Patriot missiles and Avengers defense systems and will be held from today until April 27, a Philippine Army spokesman confirmed to EFE.
In addition, they will fire HIMARS missiles at a disabled fishing boat in the province of Zambales, northwest of the archipelago and close to Bajo del Masinloc, an atoll located in Philippine territorial waters that China invaded in 2012 as part of its “historic claims” in the Sea. South China (which the Philippines calls the South Sea).
message to china
This “Balikatan”, notably more numerous in terms of troops, military deployment and intensity of live fire, puts the icing on the cake for the strengthened military alliance between Washington and Manila to curb China’s expansionist ambitions in the South Sea and in Taiwan.
Last week, the Philippines announced the four new military bases in the archipelago to which US troops will have access (bringing the total to nine), one of them in the northernmost part of the archipelago, some 400 kilometers from Taiwan, while another is on Balabac Island, close to the islands disputed by Beijing and Manila in the South China Sea.
It was precisely there, near the Spratly archipelago, that the US destroyer USS Milius sailed on Monday, a move that China condemned on the grounds that Beijing has “indisputable sovereignty” over the islands and their adjacent waters.
The US show of force coincides with some Chinese military maneuvers around Taiwan in which the blockade of the self-governing island whose sovereignty is claimed by Beijing was simulated, in response to the meeting that the president held in California last Wednesday Taiwanese Tsai Ing-wen, and the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy.
Also, this Tuesday the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, will meet with members of the Philippine government in Washington to discuss the growing tension in the South Sea before his next visit to Vietnam and Japan.