The Balikatan, or "Shoulder to Shoulder" exercises, will involve some 5,000 Philippine troops and 6,500 US soldiers this year, according to the Philippine armed forces. This is the 31st joint drill since 1991.
During the 10 days of exercises, there will also be training held for Philippine first responders and seminars to improve the local knowledge of community nursing and diseases that often spread during disasters, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
A naval base involved in the drill in Zambales province is around 200 kilometers from China's Huangyan Island, the China News Service reported.
Manila and Washington sent some 5,500 troops to take part in the 2014 drill.
"The growth in the number of soldiers participating in the exercises shows the US is pushing its strategy of a pivot to the Asia-Pacific and bolstering its allies which are engaged in territorial disputes with China," Li Jie, a research fellow at the Chinese Naval Research Institute, told the Global Times.
"We have compelling reasons to raise our voice to tell the whole world the adverse effects of China's aggressiveness," Philippine military chief General Gregorio Catapang was quoted by AFP as saying.
Meanwhile, China said it hopes that relevant countries will do more to "enhance security mutual trust among countries in the region and promote regional peace and stability," said foreign ministry spokesperson Hong Lei at a Monday briefing.
"As China-led economic initiatives such as the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank and 'One Belt, One Road' are receiving a lot of attention, the US is attempting to expand its military influence in order to contain China," Li said.
A Philippine military spokesman told reporters in Manila on Sunday that "no specific threat was factored" into the drills, according to Al Jazeera.
Dozens of leftwing activists protested outside the US Embassy in Manila, saying the US was using China as a bogeyman to gain a forward base in the Philippines, Reuters reported on Monday.
[By Chen Heying Source:Global Times Published: 2015-4-21 0:43:01]
globaltimes.cn
20-21/4/15
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Beijing rejects US ‘force’ accusations. (Obama’s claims about South China Sea disputes unjustified)
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China asks US to stop interfering in maritime disputes
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Philippines accuses China of turning water cannon on its fishing boats...
ReplyDelete(Reuters) - Filipino activists denounced China's coast guard on Tuesday for turning water cannon on Philippine fishing boats in disputed waters, near where hundreds of Filipino and American Marines landed on a beach in a mock assault.
The presidential palace in Manila said China's coast guard used water cannon on Monday to drive away a group of Filipino fishermen at Scarborough Shoal, damaging some of their wooden boats. Chinese ships rammed a fishing boat in the area a few months back.
China in 2012 took control of Scarborough Shoal, about 130 miles west of a former U.S. naval base northwest of Manila, preventing Filipino fishermen from getting near the rich fishing grounds.
"China has no right to use water cannon on the poor fishermen," Renato Reyes, secretary-general of left-wing activist group Bayan (Nation), said in a statement, while criticizing the government's dependence on the U.S. military to protect the country.
"To stand up to China, we need to develop our economy and our capacity for external defense. We can't do this by hanging on the coat tails of Uncle Sam," Reyes said.
China claims most of the potentially energy-rich South China Sea, with overlapping claims from the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan, and denies charges its actions in what it says is its own territory are provocative. The Foreign Ministry has yet to comment on the latest accusations...........reuters.com
21/4/15