00:00I hereby declare exercise Balikatan 41-2026 officially open, starting today.
00:12The sea, skies, and islands of Southeast Asia are serving as mock battlefields this week,
00:19with Balikatan 41 kicking off in the Philippines.
00:22More than 17,000 troops from the United States, the Philippines, and Japan
00:27are taking part in 19 days of exercises across the country.
00:32Forces from Australia, New Zealand, France, and Canada are also joining,
00:37bringing the total to seven participating nations, with 17 more observing.
00:42We consider it as the most expansive Balikatan,
00:46since there are more participants and more members of the International Observation Program.
00:56And, of course, the number is also bigger than the biggest Balikatan.
01:02Balikatan, which translates as shoulder-to-shoulder, is the cornerstone of the U.S.-Philippines alliance.
01:09This year's drills come as U.S. attention appears increasingly focused on its conflicts with Iran in the Middle East.
01:16Let me be clear, regardless of the challenges elsewhere in the world,
01:22the United States' focus on the Indo-Pacific and our ironclad commitment to the Philippines remains unwavering.
01:29They're also being held amid a period of heightened tensions between Beijing and Manila
01:35over competing territorial claims in the nearby South China Sea.
01:39China also announced drills of its own in the East China Sea on Saturday.
02:03The drills will include live fire exercises in northern areas facing the Taiwan Strait.
02:09But it's the inclusion of Japan that may be most notable.
02:14This year, Tokyo is deploying combat troops to the Philippines for the first time since the end of World War
02:19II,
02:20sending around 1,400 personnel, three warships, and a land-based anti-ship missile unit.
02:26Over the next few weeks, our combined forces will execute complex training across the air, land, sea, space, and cyber
02:37domains.
02:38We'll sharpen our ability to conduct maritime security, enhance command and control, and improve combined readiness.
02:47Participants say Bellicaten's expanded scale highlight deepening cooperation in the Asia-Pacific to face regional threats together.
02:56Chris Ma and Ellen Liu for Taiwan Plus.
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