Battle of Bach Dang River
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Philippines, U.S. stage war games in face of China warning
Wed Apr 25, 2012
Reuters/
Sabban said the military drill was not focused on China.
"Never was China ever mentioned in our planning and execution," he told reporters. "China should not be worried about Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) exercises."
Nearly 7,000 American and Philippine troops were launched from U.S. and Philippine ships in the simulated amphibious assault to recapture an island supposedly taken by militants.
Four days ago, commando teams rappelled from U.S. helicopters and landed from rubber boats in a mock assault to retake an oil rig in northern Palawan, 18 km (11 miles) off the town of El Nido on the South China Sea.
The annual war games come under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, part of a web of security alliances the United States built in the Asia-Pacific region during the Cold War.
The drills are a rehearsal of a mutual defense plan by the two allies to repel any aggression in the Philippines.
Hundreds of kilometers to the north, a Philippine coast guard ship patrols near Scarborough Shoal, a group of half-submerged rock formations 124 nautical miles west of the Philippines' main island of Luzon.
Philippine and Chinese ships are often in the same areas of the South China Sea, with two Chinese maritime surveillance ships a few miles away from the coast guard vessel and five Chinese fishing boats hauling clams, coral and sharks nearby.
(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING and John Ruwitch in HANOI; Editing by Jason Szep and Nick Macfie)
Philippines, U.S. stage war games in face of China warning | Top News | Reuters
Wed Apr 25, 2012
Reuters/
Sabban said the military drill was not focused on China.
"Never was China ever mentioned in our planning and execution," he told reporters. "China should not be worried about Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) exercises."
Nearly 7,000 American and Philippine troops were launched from U.S. and Philippine ships in the simulated amphibious assault to recapture an island supposedly taken by militants.
Four days ago, commando teams rappelled from U.S. helicopters and landed from rubber boats in a mock assault to retake an oil rig in northern Palawan, 18 km (11 miles) off the town of El Nido on the South China Sea.
The annual war games come under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, part of a web of security alliances the United States built in the Asia-Pacific region during the Cold War.
The drills are a rehearsal of a mutual defense plan by the two allies to repel any aggression in the Philippines.
Hundreds of kilometers to the north, a Philippine coast guard ship patrols near Scarborough Shoal, a group of half-submerged rock formations 124 nautical miles west of the Philippines' main island of Luzon.
Philippine and Chinese ships are often in the same areas of the South China Sea, with two Chinese maritime surveillance ships a few miles away from the coast guard vessel and five Chinese fishing boats hauling clams, coral and sharks nearby.
(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING and John Ruwitch in HANOI; Editing by Jason Szep and Nick Macfie)
Philippines, U.S. stage war games in face of China warning | Top News | Reuters
