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1 of 3 | Armed Forces of nan Philippines Gen. Romeo S. Brawner Jr. (L) shakes hands pinch U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. William M. Jurney during nan opening ceremonial of nan Balikatan 2024 associated workout astatine Camp Aguinaldo, Philippines connected Monday. Photo by Lance Cpl. Erica Stanke/U.S. Marine Corps
April 22 (UPI) -- The United States and nan Philippines kicked disconnected their astir extended associated subject workout ever connected Monday, pinch drills scheduled successful nan tense South China Sea amid warnings from China complete its territorial claims.
More than 16,000 members of nan Armed Forces of nan Philippines and nan U.S. subject will participate successful nan 39th yearly Balikatan exercise, which runs until May 10 and will see a associated sail extracurricular of nan Philippines' territorial waters for nan first time.
"We person perfectly accrued nan scope, nan standard and nan complexity of nan workout crossed each domains," U.S. workout head Lt. Gen. William Jurney said astatine an opening ceremony astatine Camp Aguinaldo successful Quezon City.
"[The exercise] matters for location bid and stability," Jurney said. "When we summation our communal consequence and defense capabilities, we fortify our expertise to beforehand location information and protect our shared interests."
Balikatan, which intends "shoulder-to-shoulder" successful Tagalog, will see live-fire rocket launches and a boat-sinking drill successful nan South China Sea, wherever China has accrued its usage of h2o cannons and vulnerable maneuvers successful territorial faceoffs pinch Philippine vessels.
China claims sovereignty complete almost nan full South China Sea, a contention that an world tribune successful The Hague rejected successful 2016.
The workout will besides see training connected maritime security, amphibious and aviation operations, cyber defense, counterterrorism, and disaster alleviation scenarios. The United States and nan Philippines will beryllium joined by nan French navy for a trilateral maritime workout held beyond nan Philippines' territorial waters for nan first time.
"Together alongside our like-minded partners we are afloat committed to upholding a unchangeable and prosperous Indo-Pacific," Philippine service Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said astatine nan opening ceremony. "The ever-evolving quality of defense necessitates our take and transformation."
China condemned nan upcoming workout past week, saying it would only service to summation tensions successful nan region.
"The Philippines needs to beryllium afloat alert that erstwhile countries extracurricular nan region are brought into nan South China Sea to flex muscles and stoke confrontation, tensions could get worse and nan region will only go little stable," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said astatine a property convention Wednesday.
Lin besides objected to nan activity of a U.S. rocket strategy to nan bluish Philippines for nan drills, which he called a "forward deployment astatine China's doorstep to activity unilateral subject advantage."
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has looked to move person to Washington aft his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte hobbled nan confederation successful an effort to fortify ties pinch Beijing.
Earlier this period U.S. President Joe Biden hosted Marcos Jr. and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for nan countries' first-ever trilateral summit, astatine which he said Washington's committedness to nan Philippines remains "ironclad" amid China's assertion of powerfulness successful nan South China Sea.
