This year’s Kamandag exercise involves troops from the Philippines, the US, Japan, Australia, the UK and South Korea, along with observers

The Philippines and the United States have kicked off an annual military exercise involving more allies this year amid growing concerns over a potential conflict in the Asia-Pacific region.

Around 2,351 troops are taking part in the drills named Kamandag – an acronym in Filipino for “cooperation of the warriors of the sea” – which began on Tuesday and will run until October 25.

Marines from the Philippines and the United States are leading the drills, which will also involve troops from Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom and South Korea. This year’s exercise marked the involvement of British troops and observers from France, Thailand and Indonesia for the first time.

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“Kamandag serves as a testament to the enduring and ironclad alliance our nation shares [with its allies]. We will enhance our interoperability, strengthen our collective defence and build personal friendships,” Colonel Stuart W. Glenn, the US commanding officer of the Marine Rotational Force Southeast Asia, said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Through our efforts, we reaffirm our mutual commitment to regional security as we face the ever-evolving security environment that threatens a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Glenn added.

The start of the Kamandag came one day after China launched blockade drills, called The Joint Sword-2024B, involving land and sea strikes in the north, south and east of Taiwan and the Taiwan Strait.

Beijing views Taiwan as a renegade province that should be reintegrated into mainland control, by force if necessary. While many nations, including the US, do not officially acknowledge Taiwan as an independent state, they oppose any use of force to alter the status quo.

Major General Arturo Rojas, commandant of the Philippine Marine Corps, emphasised that the Kamandag exercises were defensive and “not directed at any specific threat”.

“It is about building trust, fostering cooperation, and reinforcing the partnerships that allow us to maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific,” Rojas said.

The involvement of Manila’s allies underscored “the growing recognition that the security of the Indo-Pacific is not the responsibility of one or two countries, but a collective effort”, he added.

Concerns over maritime tensions

Explaining the participation of non-Indo-Pacific countries, Abdul Rahman Yaacob, a research fellow with the Lowy Institute’s Southeast Asia programme, told This Week in Asia that any military conflict over Taiwan would have a spillover effect across the South China Sea, which could destabilise key maritime routes and regional security.

“That is why France and the UK have interests in this region,” Yaacob said.

This year’s Kamandag is taking place in Burgos, Ilocos Norte, and Basco and Itbayat in Batanes – all facing the Taiwan Strait – and will include scenario planning to transport overseas Filipino workers, live-fire drills, amphibious landings and disaster response demonstrations.

The scenario planning reflected concerns about Filipino workers being stranded over a potential conflict in Taiwan, Yaacob said.

“There is a large number of Filipinos working in Taiwan and they will need to be evacuated if there is a military conflict across the Taiwan Strait,” Yaacob said.

The involvement of observers from Thailand and Indonesia was notable given that the two countries, along with the Philippines and Vietnam, have a large number of workers in Taiwan, according to Yaacob.

“It is in the interest of these countries to plan for a successful evacuation of their nationals from Taiwan when a military conflict occurs. I think the Indonesian and Thai involvement in the exercise is designed to assist them in their planning for a successful evacuation of their Taiwan-based nationals,” Yaacob explained.

“However, my concern is whether the four Asean countries can work with each other. There is a need for good coordination among them to deal with humanitarian issues involving their Taiwan-based workers,” he added.

Sherwin Ona, a political science professor at De La Salle University, said there were growing concerns among these countries about escalating tensions in the Taiwan Strait and the West Philippine Sea, Manila’s name for an area in the South China Sea lying within its exclusive economic zone.

“The recent Joint Sword exercises of the People’s Liberation Army [PLA] and the PLA Navy carrier task force exercise in the Pacific proved to be an alarming development for like-minded countries. Add to this is the continuous harassment of the Philippine coastguard and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources ships in the West Philippine Sea,” Ona said.

“I think this is a strong message to Beijing that these countries are concerned and that they are against escalating tensions. As for the [Kamandag] exercise itself, there is an emphasis on coastal defence, especially now that the US Marines are deploying new forward littoral units,” he added.

Beijing has been accused of employing aggressive tactics against Philippine ships in the South China Sea, such as firing water cannons and using high-intensity lasers, in a bid to assert its territorial claims in the disputed waters.

China claims nearly the entire South China Sea, including areas also claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam. An international tribunal dismissed China’s claims in 2016, declaring them without legal basis – a verdict that Beijing has consistently rejected.

Kamandag, which first began in 2016, and other joint drills underscore the commitment of the Philippines and the US under the 1951 Mutual Defence Treaty, which calls on both sides to help each other in times of external aggression.

Yaacob noted the increasing involvement of Japan in military drills led by the Philippines including Kamandag, saying that Tokyo has an interest in working with Manila in any joint evacuation of its nationals from Taiwan.

“For example, Japanese nationals in the southern part of Taiwan can be evacuated to the Philippines while Filipinos in the northern part of Taiwan can be moved to Okinawa. The involvement of Japanese troops is significant,” Yaacob said.

In July, Japan and the Philippines signed an agreement to allow the deployment of their troops in each other’s territory for joint military and disaster relief exercises.

Chris Gardiner, CEO of the Institute for Regional Security in Canberra, told This Week in Asia that the bigger scale of this year’s Kamandag reflected the concerns of more countries over the South China Sea dispute and its potential impact on their vital trade interests.

“It’s a testament to Filipino defence diplomacy that so many states are either involved or joining this year’s exercise as observers,” he said.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.