The US and the Philippines on Monday officially opened the 39th series of the annual Balikatan joint military exercise, Asian media reported.
The 19-day exercise will involve some 5,000 Filipino and 11,000 US troops, making it the largest joint Philippine-US exercise in decades, the Philippine Defence Department said.
Contingents from the Australian Defence Force and, for the first time in the history of Balikatan, the French Navy will also join the exercise. A total of 14 countries, including Japan and India, will participate in the annual military exercise as observers.
Participants in the exercise will perform a number of complex tasks in various fields, including maritime security, air and missile defence, dynamic missile attacks, cyber defence and information operations.
This year’s maritime exercise will be the first time the exercise will go beyond the Philippines’ 12 nautical miles of territorial waters.
Washington and Manila are treaty allies and have deepened their defence cooperation since Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos took office in 2022. Although the Philippines is lightly armed, its proximity to the South China Sea and Taiwan would make it a key US partner in the event of a conflict with China. Philippine Colonel Michael Logico told reporters ahead of the drills:
The purpose of armed forces, why we exist, is really to prepare for war.
Also on Monday, protesters gathered outside Camp Aguinaldo, the headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and where the Balikatan 2024 opening ceremony will be held, to express their opposition.
They carried placards and banners denouncing the military exercise, calling on the Philippine government to terminate military agreements with the US. Many Filipino experts and academics also expressed their concern that the joint exercise could threaten regional security.
Anna Malindog-Uy, vice president of the Manila-based think tank Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies Institute, told Xinhua that the participation of more countries in such military exercises “could lead to the creation of new or strengthened political and military alliances in the region, which could intensify our competition, bring division and increase tensions among regional countries.” Former Senator Francisco Tatad, who is also a columnist for the Manila Times, wrote in a recent opinion piece:
Our people do not want war with any country for any reason whatsoever, least of all one with our biggest neighbor and trading partner with whom we do not have any serious problems we cannot solve.
Balikatan, which means “shoulder to shoulder” in Tagalog, is the largest of several regular joint military exercises between the Philippines and the US.
The Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) gives US troops a legal basis to be in the Southeast Asian country for bilateral exercises and governs the conduct of US military personnel.
