US-Philippine Balikatan military exercises in South China Sea ‘not a message to Beijing’, insists Manila

A military exercise in which US and Philippine forces simulate repelling a foreign power that has seized control of a Manila-controlled island in the South China Sea is not meant to send a message to China, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo insisted on Monday.

Responding to a question by the South China Morning Post, Panelo was adamant that the Balikatan 2019 naval drills, which took place from April 1 to 12, were “regular military exercises jointly agreed upon by the two countries even prior to the so-called present conflict between China and the Philippines”.

Since January, Manila and Beijing have been at loggerheads over China’s deployment of a large fleet of vessels to the Philippines-held Thitu island in the South China Sea. Beijing has sent a fleet of about 275 boats to the vicinity of the island, in what analysts have claimed is an effort to dissuade Manila from constructing military facilities there. Beijing is concerned the United States would be able to use the facilities, according to diplomatic observers. The presence of the Chinese vessels recently prompted Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, using the Philippine name for the island, to warn Beijing to “lay off Pagasa because I have soldiers there”.