More than 2,500 US and Philippine marines joined combat exercises on Monday to be able to respond to any sudden crisis in a region long on tenterhooks over South China Sea territorial disputes and increasing tensions over Taiwan, SCMP reported.
The maneuvers will last until 14 October. They take place in the Philippine province of Palawan. The exercises involved 1.9 thousand US Marines and 600 Filipino military, American MLRS HIMARS and fighter jets.
At the same time, the US Marine Corps and the Japan Self-Defense Forces are conducting exercises on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, where approximately 3,000 troops are involved.
At the same time, the Russian Navy and the Chinese Navy completed the second joint patrol of the Pacific Ocean the day before. Within three weeks, warships of the Pacific Fleet and the PLA Navy passed through the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk, the Bering Sea, the Philippine Sea, and the East China Sea. The joint detachment visited the Bering Sea for the first time and circled part of the Aleutian Islands archipelago. In total, during the campaign, the ships covered more than seven thousand nautical miles, the RF Ministry of Defense reports.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken warned in July that Washington is obliged to defend the Philippines under the 1951 US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty if Filipino forces, vessels or aircraft come under attack in the disputed waters.
In addition to China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have had overlapping claims in the busy waterway, where an estimated US$5 trillion in goods passes each year and which is believed to be rich in undersea gas and oil deposits.
Except that, President Joe Biden said last month that American forces would defend Taiwan if Beijing tries to invade the self-ruled island, sparking protests from China.