US, Philippine forces start military drills amid tension over China’s war games

MANILA: Thousands of US and Filipino troops launched joint exercises in the northern and western Philippines on Tuesday, after China held huge drills around Taiwan and a Chinese vessel collided with a Filipino patrol boat.

The annual Kamandag, or Venom, exercises are focussed on defending the north coast of the Philippines´ main island of Luzon, which lies about 800-kms from self-ruled Taiwan.

Beijing considers Taiwan part of its territory and has vowed it will never rule out using force to take it, calling Monday´s drills a “stern warning” to “separatist” forces on the island.

The joint US-Filipino exercises also come days after a collision between a Chinese and a Philippine vessel in the South China Sea.

It was the latest in a series of confrontations between the two countries in the strategic waterway claimed almost entirely by Beijing.

Philippine Marine Corps commandant Major General Arturo Rojas stressed at Tuesday´s opening ceremony in Manila that Kamandag was long planned and had “nothing to do with whatever is happening in the region”. The drills´ primary focus will be live-fire exercises along Luzon´s north coast, while other activities will be conducted on tiny Philippine islands between Luzon and Taiwan.

“It´s a coastal defence doctrine. The doctrine says that a would-be aggressor might be directed towards our territory,” Filipino exercise director Brigadier-General Vicente Blanco told reporters. “We are not exercising to join the fight (over Taiwan),” he added.