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‘A war over Taiwan will drag the Philippines, kicking and screaming, into the conflict’, Ferdinand Marcos, President of the Philippines, stated last summer. His incendiary remarks resurfaced this week as Manila and Washington conduct their annual wargaming exercises in the Indo-Pacific.
The defence drills aim to prepare both militaries for two of the region’s most likely future conflict zones: the Taiwan Strait, and the South China Sea. For the Strait, the drills are taking place north of the Philippines, facing the Taiwan Strait, fewer than 120 miles from the island’s coast. In the South China Sea, they are near a province which has seen repeated escalation of conflict between Philippine and Chinese forces and fishermen in recent years.
For the first time ever, Japan has joined these drills, days after signing a US$7 billion (£5.18 billion) deal with Australia, which will see the construction of 11 warships – Japan will build three, and Australia eight. Canberra is also participating in the aforementioned military drills, as it has done previously.
Guess which country feels targeted by all this?
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