Military exercises are a routine part of life for personnel stationed in Hawai‘i---and for those around the Asia Pacific. Right now, Operation Foal Eagle is continuing in South Korea—part of operations that involved more than 300-thousand Korean forces at its peak….along with 17-thousand from the United States. And in the Philippines, another annual exercise quietly got underway this week. HPR’s Bill Dorman has details in today’s Asia Minute.
About 5,000 US forces and another 4,000 from the Philippines are taking part in Balikatan 2016.
That means “shoulder-to-shoulder” in Tagalog. It’s an annual military exercise that’s taken place since 1991…but this year’s version has a few twists. Japan sent a submarine to the Philippines just before events got underway. That’s the first time in 15 years a Japanese submarine has been in Philippine waters. For the first time ever, this year’s exercises will involve supersonic jets and mobile surface-to-air missiles.
Australia has dozens of forces there. The Straits Times reports a team of Australian paratroopers will be part of a drill that simulates the re-taking of an oil platform off the island of Palawan. Vietnam is observing the maneuvers, and US Defense Secretary Ash Carter will stop by next week. Leaders in Washington and Manila recently announced an agreement for US forces to use five bases across the Philippines to support rotational deployments.
And then there’s China, which for months has been filling in reefs---building air strips and radar systems in the South China Sea. This week, the state-run Xinhua news service criticized the exercises, as well as US policy in the area—warning that “outsiders” should not interfere in the region.
