US and Philippines Launch Military Drills with Partners

By Staff, Agencies

The United States military kicked off two weeks of multilateral exercises with its Philippine allies and multiple international partners on Monday amid rising tensions between Manila and Beijing over territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

Maritime Training Activity Sama Sama 2023 is the seventh and largest iteration of the drills as participants from Australia, Canada, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Malaysia join the US and the Philippines, according to a US Navy press release.

The exercises off the Philippine coast will include drills on anti-submarine, surface and air warfare as well as land phases, the release said.

Beijing says it is Manila that’s stoking tensions.

China says Philippine vessels are intruding on its territory in the Spratly Island chain, despite a 2016 international tribunal ruling rejecting Beijing’s claim.

China claims indisputable sovereignty over almost all 1.3 million square miles of the South China Sea, and most of the islands and sandbars within it, including many features that are hundreds of miles from mainland China. Along with the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan also hold competing claims.

Sama Sama will run through October 13.