The United States and Philippine militaries yesterday began their major annual joint military drills in the Philippines, including in areas close to the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, against a backdrop of regional unease stemming from the war in the Middle East.

More than 17,000 troops from seven nations, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, and Japan, will take part in the 19-day Balikatan military exercises, which will run until May 8. An additional 17 nations will participate as observers.

Balikatan – the Tagalog word means “shoulder to shoulder” – comes at an uncertain time for the U.S., with the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran threatening economic chaos in Asia and raising inevitable doubts about the sustainability of U.S. deterrence in the region.

Speaking during yesterday’s opening ceremony, U.S. Lt.-Gen. Christian Wortman, the commander of the I Marine Expeditionary Force, sought to reassure Washington’s Asian partners, particularly the Philippines, that it wasn’t going anywhere.

“Regardless of the challenges elsewhere in the world, the United States’ focus on the Indo-Pacific and our ironclad commitment to the Philippines remain unwavering,” Wortman said during the ceremony.

Philippine Gen. Romeo S. Brawner Jr., the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said that the presence of allies and partners “sends a clear and unmistakable message that security is shared and that partnership remains our strongest advantage.” He added, “When nations stand together, shoulder-to-shoulder, with trust, purpose, and resolve, we are always stronger.”

This year’s Balikatan drills are the largest so far in terms of the number of participating countries, with Canada, France, New Zealand, and Japan all joining the exercises as active participants for the first time. This reflects the recent expansion of Manila’s security partnerships, which has been driven by a shared concern about China’s increasing maritime assertiveness in the East and South China seas. Over the past two years, this has culminated in the signing of a Reciprocal Access Agreement with Japan, which entered into effect last September, and similar agreements with New Zealand, Canada, and most recently, France.

The exercises will “feature cutting-edge training across the air, land, sea, space, and cyber domains,” the U.S. Marine Corps said in a statement last week. “Field training exercises throughout the Philippines will culminate in capstone events to rehearse warfighting skills in maritime security, coastal defense, and the integration of combined and joint fires,” the statement added.

This will include integrated air and missile defense drills and a counter-landing live-fire exercise in Zambales province on the South China Sea, about 230 kilometers from the disputed Scarborough Shoal, an atoll claimed by the Philippines but controlled by China where the two nations have clashed frequently over the past few years.

In one particularly noteworthy drill, Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, which are sending 1,400 personnel to Balikatan, will use Type 88 anti-ship cruise missiles to sink a World War II-era minesweeper off the coast of northern Luzon. The exercises ​will also involve the use of the American Typhon missile system, which has been present in the Philippines since 2024, and feature the simulated firing of advanced BrahMos cruise missiles, which the Philippines recently purchased from India.

In addition to this, the Philippines and the U.S. will for the first time hold maritime strike drills on the island of Itbayat, the northernmost point ​of the Philippines, which lies just 155 ​kilometers from Taiwan.

All of this is unlikely to sit well with Beijing, which usually issues a standard denunciation of the annual exercise and any joint maritime activities between the Philippines and its primary security partners.

Sure enough, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said yesterday that the drills would create division and confrontation in Asia, Reuters reported. “We would like to remind the relevant ⁠countries that ​persisting in tying themselves together on security will only lead to ​setting themselves on fire and backfiring,” Guo said.