One of the year’s biggest military exercises in the Indo-Pacific is coming to a close.
Balikatan is Tagalog for shoulder-to-shoulder — and it describes the military relationship between the United States and the Philippines.
It’s also the name of an annual military exercise involving more than 16,000 service members from the two countries.
The latest version wraps up with a ceremony on Friday — after three weeks of drills ranging from repelling a mock island invasion to missile defense and anti-submarine warfare drills.
Australian forces also took part in the exercises — as they have since 2014.
On Tuesday, U.S. and Philippine forces used rockets, artillery and air attacks to sink a ship in the South China Sea — while an Australian aircraft provided aerial surveillance.
This all took place off the coast of Ilocos Norte — the home province of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
It was Marcos who expanded access to U.S. military forces soon after he took office nearly two years ago.
As always, China monitored the recent events — and it wasn’t the only country to do so.
The U.S. Embassy listed 14 observer countries at the exercises — from France and Germany to India, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam.
