MANILA: The Philippines and the United States launched their largest-ever joint military exercises on Tuesday.
Nearly 18,000 troops are taking part in the annual exercises dubbed Balikatan, or "shoulder to shoulder" in Filipino, which for the first time will include a live-fire drill in the South China Sea.
Balikatan will include military helicopters landing on a Philippine island off the northern tip of the main island of Luzon and the retaking of another island by amphibious forces.
It will be the first time the exercises have been held under President Ferdinand Marcos, who has sought to strengthen ties with the United States after his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte trashed the alliance.
"In order for us to protect our sovereign territory, we really have to drill and exercise how we are going to retake an island that's been taken away from us," Philippine exercises spokesman Colonel Michael Logico told reporters after the opening ceremony at a military camp in Manila.
In recent months, Manila and Washington have agreed to restart joint maritime patrols in the South China Sea and struck a deal to expand the US forces' footprint in the Philippines.
About 12,200 American, 5,400 Filipino and just over 100 Australian soldiers will participate in the two weeks of Balikatan exercises -- about twice as many as last year.
As part of the exercises, troops will stage an amphibious landing on the western island of Palawan, the closest Philippine landmass to the Spratly Islands.
The two armies originally planned to fire live rounds at sea off the northern province of Ilocos Norte, but later on had to move it further down the South China Sea, Philippine Army Major-General Marvin Licudine said.
The original site was "not sufficiently prepared" for unloading the needed equipment, he added.
The exercises will enhance "tactics, techniques and procedures across a wide range of military operations," said Philippine military spokesman Colonel Medel Aguilar.
Soon after the opening ceremony in Manila, the Philippine defence and foreign ministers will jointly meet their US counterparts in Washington.
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