US, Philippines launch war games

MANILA

Philippine Marine Corps commandant Major-General Arturo Rojas (2nd L), US Marines exercise representative Colonel Stuart Glenn (L), and Philippine Marine Corps and exercise director Brigadier General Vicente Blanco (2nd R) take part in the opening ceremony of the Kamandag 2024 joint military exercise at the Philippine Marines officers club at Fort Bonifacio in Manila on Oct. 15, 2024.

Thousands of U.S. and Filipino marines launched 10 days of joint exercises in the northern and western Philippines on Tuesday, a day after China held huge drills around Taiwan.

The annual Kamandag, or Venom, exercises are focused on defending the north coast of the Philippine's main island of Luzon, which lies about 800 kilometers from self-ruled Taiwan.

Beijing considers Taiwan part of its territory and has vowed it will never rule out using force to take it, calling Oct. 14's drills a "stern warning" to "separatist" forces on the island.

The joint U.S.-Filipino exercises come amid a series of escalating confrontations between China and the Philippines over reefs and waters in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety.

Philippine Marine Corps commandant Major-General Arturo Rojas stressed at today's opening ceremony in Manila that Kamandag was long planned and had "nothing to do with whatever is happening in the region."

The drills' primary focus will be live-fire exercises along Luzon's north coast, while other activities will be conducted on tiny Philippine islands between Luzon and Taiwan.

"It's a coastal defense doctrine. The doctrine says that a would-be aggressor might be directed towards our territory," Filipino exercise director Brigadier-General Vicente Blanco told reporters.

"We are not exercising to join the fight [over Taiwan]," he added.