US RIMPAC exercises not directed at any country
MANILA, Philippines — Despite China's militarization of man-made islands in the South China Sea, this year's Rim of the Pacific Exercises (RIMPAC) remain to be a venue for building relationships.
US 3rd Fleet Commander Vice Adm. John Alexander, Combined Task Force commander of 2018 RIMPAC, said that multinational maritime exercises are not directed against any nation or country.
"What we are doing here is training with fellow partners in the Indo Pacific region and the exercise we are conducting are against fictional countries that we have built geography in the water for," Alexander said in a teleconference on Friday.
He added that the decision of the US Department of State to withdraw the invitation to China was based on the latter's actions in the South China Sea.
Beijing's deployment of new weapons and electronic jammers in the disputed waters were inconsistent with the principles and purposes of the biannual exercises.
"RIMPAC's about inclusivity. It's about following international rules and norms and so the senior civilian leadership felt that militarization is against the principles of RIMPAC and so they were disinvited," Alexander said.
About 26 countries from around the world will be participating in the RIMPAC exercises, including Australia, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, the Republic of Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tonga, United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam.
A total of 46 ships, five submarines, approximately 200 aircraft and about 25,000 soldiers will be deployed in the exercises in Hawaii and Southern California.
The Philippine Navy has sent two waships, BRP Davao del Sur and BRP Andres Bonifacio, to participate in the joint naval exercises in the Pacific.
This would be the first time that the Philippine Navy sent a naval task force to participate in the world's largest joint and combined naval exercise which will run until August 2.
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