US begins ‘biggest ever’ Philippines war games in thick of Middle East war

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MANILA – Thousands of American and Philippine troops, joined for the first time by a significant contingent of Japanese forces, began annual military exercises on April 20 set against the backdrop of the Middle East war.

The war games will feature live-fire exercises in the north of the country facing the Taiwan Strait, as well as a province off the disputed South China Sea, where the Philippines and China have engaged in repeated confrontations.

In one drill, the Japanese military, which is contributing 1,400 personnel, will use a Type 88 cruise missile to sink a World War II-era minesweeper off the coast of northern Luzon island.

More than 17,000 soldiers, airmen and sailors are taking part in the 19-day Balikatan, or Shoulder to Shoulder, exercises – about the same number as 2025’s edition – including contingents from Australia, New Zealand, France and Canada.

Balikatan comes as Iran and the US, along with Israel, edge towards the end of the two-week ceasefire that halted the Middle East war, ignited by surprise US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

“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,” US Lieutenant-General Christian Wortman said at the opening ceremony on April 20.

Without providing precise numbers, Lt-Gen Wortman, commander of the Marine Expeditionary Force, later told reporters that approximately 10,000 US personnel would take part in the exercises.

Philippine military chief Romeo Brawner said that the chief of the US Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral Samuel Paparo, had assured him at the war’s outbreak that 2026’s Balikatan would be “the biggest ever”.

“Through integrated air and missile defence, maritime security operations, live-fire exercises and joint multinational readiness training, the nations are building systems that think, move and respond as one,” General Brawner said.

Among the high-end weapons expected to be involved during the annual exercise is a US Typhon missile system that has been in the archipelago since it was left by visiting US forces in 2024, provoking outrage from Beijing.

“We anticipate that it will be incorporated at some level during the course of the exercise,” Lt-Gen Wortman said.

Proximity to Taiwan

While both militaries insisted that no exercises would take place “near Taiwan”, coastal defence drills are set for the Philippines’ northernmost Batanes island chain, less than 200km from the self-ruled island’s southern coast.

Beijing has ramped up military pressure around Taiwan, which it considers part of its territory, and has threatened to use force to seize the island.

China slammed the joint exercises on April 20, saying the US, Japan and the Philippines were “playing with fire”.

“What the Asia-Pacific region needs most is peace and tranquillity, and what it needs least is the introduction of external forces to sow division and confrontation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a news briefing. “We wish to remind the countries concerned that blindly binding themselves together in the name of security will only be akin to playing with fire – ultimately backfiring upon themselves,” he added.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos warned in November 2025 that given his country’s proximity to the self-ruled island and its surrounding waters, “a war over Taiwan will drag the Philippines, kicking and screaming, into the conflict”.

In February, US, Japanese and Philippine aircraft patrolled over the Bashi Channel separating the Philippines from Taiwan to test what Manila called their “ability to operate seamlessly together in complex maritime environments”.

Japan’s first Balikatan as a full participant follows the signing of a reciprocal access agreement that was approved by the Japanese Diet in June 2025.

Colonel Takeshi Higuchi of Tokyo’s joint staff told Japanese media that the drills would “contribute to creating a security environment that tolerates no attempt to unilaterally change the status quo by force”.

Mr Marcos has been building up security ties with Western nations to deter China.

Over the past two years, Manila has signed visiting forces or equivalent agreements with Japan, New Zealand, Canada and France, deals aimed at facilitating their participation in joint military exercises in the Philippines.

Outside the Manila base where the opening ceremony on April 20 was held, a group of about 50 people protested against the exercises, holding aloft signs branding US President Donald Trump an “imperialist terrorist” and demanding US forces leave the country. AFP