Manila, Philippines — Combat exercises between the United States and the Philippines involving thousands of military forces each year will not be affected by the U.S. focus on the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, a U.S. general said Thursday.
The Biden administration has strengthened a series of military alliances in the Indo-Pacific region to build deterrence and better counter China, including in a possible future confrontation over Taiwan and the disputed South China Sea.
But there are concerns that the war in Ukraine and the conflict between Israel and Hamas could hamper America’s pivot to the Asia-Pacific and divert military resources intended for the region.
“It certainly doesn’t impact our presence,” Maj. Gen. Marcus Evans, commanding general of the U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry Division, said in an interview with The Associated Press late Thursday when asked to comment on these concerns.
“If anything, it creates a greater sense of urgency to focus on these partnerships we developed decades ago and it is our responsibility to continue to build on these unique training opportunities,” said Evans, who has 12,000 soldiers under his command has.
Evans, who is based in Hawaii, was in Manila for talks with his counterparts in the Philippine military ahead of large-scale combat maneuvers between U.S. and Philippine forces.
The annual exercises include the Salaknib, which are army-to-army exercises that were first held in the country in 2016, and the larger Balikatan, a Tagalog term for shoulder to shoulder, which attracted 17,600 soldiers in April. 2023 in their largest combat exercises in decades.
Some of last year’s Balikatan exercises were held in Philippine coastal areas across the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea. The extensive combat exercises involving US troops have been criticized by China as a threat to regional unity and peace.
Evans said the scope of this year’s Salaknib and Balikatan exercises, which include jungle training, “remains consistent with last year.” After the exercises, a contingent from a Hawaii-based combat readiness center would participate for the first time in a “highly focused assessment exercise” to assess the ability of allied forces to operate together, he said.
The unfolding conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, he said, were a source of important lessons for Allied forces in the Philippines.
“The two conflicts … continue to provide us with lessons that we can learn, implement and train on here in the Philippines,” Evans said.
As the conflicts unfold, “We are actively learning and understanding some of the challenges we are experiencing,” he said, without elaborating.
“We talked about this today. Our ability to be small and undetectable, our ability to move quickly in this spot, our ability to project forward and see and feel are all things we need to continue to train on” , he said. said.
“Collectively, we have a responsibility to make ourselves better prepared today than we were yesterday,” he said.
Last year, Washington repeatedly expressed support for the Philippines amid a series of increasingly tense territorial confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels, including incidents in which the Chinese coast guard and suspected militia ships resorted to water cannons and dangerous blocking maneuvers that caused minor collisions in the Philippines. disputed South China Sea.
Washington renewed a warning last year that it would defend the Philippines, Asia’s oldest treaty ally, if Philippine forces, ships and aircraft came under armed attack, including in the disputed waters.
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Associated Press journalist Aaron Favila contributed to this report.