Balikatan military drills: Philippines says sinking of China-made ship ‘not intentional’

While the sinking of a decommissioned made-in-China navy tanker will be a highlight of the massive Balikatan multilateral maritime exercises, it is not meant to send a message to any particular country, the Philippine military has said.

This year’s edition of the annual exercises will be conducted from April 22 until May 8 and may include up to 17,000 participants, mainly from the armed services of the United States, the Philippines, Australia and France.

The decision to use the BRP Lake Caliraya – the Philippine Navy’s only Chinese-made naval asset – as the target for a sinking exercise was “not intentional”, said Army Colonel Michael Logico, the executive agent and spokesman for Balikatan 2024. The sinking exercise will be undertaken by warships from the navies of the various participants in the northern Philippines.

In a briefing with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines on Wednesday, Logico said this year’s Balikatan – a Tagalog term for “shoulder to shoulder” – would feature several firsts.

At least 16,000 participants will train together this year, including 11,000 soldiers from the US and 5,000 from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), while the rest will come from the French navy and the Australian Defence Force. The figure is expected to top last year’s number of 16,000 service members, who were mainly from the US military and the AFP.

Fourteen other countries, including those from Asean, the European Union and Japan, would send “observers”, Logico said. Participants from other government agencies such as the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Information and Communications Technology were also invited.

Logico said this year’s exercise would test the interoperability of the