The annual US-Philippine military exercise Balikatan began on 22 April and will continue until 10 May. Originally planned as a relatively small and bilateral exercise, in recent years it has become the largest of those conducted by the United States in the Indo-Pacific region with the participation of one or more of its allies.

Australia has been a regular participant, while France has joined the current exercise for the first time. Observers from more than a dozen other Asian and European countries are usually present at these exercises. In particular, the current exercise included observers from India and Japan.

The total number of troops participating in Balikatan-2024 remained at the same level as last year, when it peaked at 17,000 for the entire duration of the exercise. This year, 11,000 Americans participated, mainly from the Marine Corps, but also from the Army, Navy and Air Force. The Philippines also sent 5,000 Marines. The remaining 1,000 were a small contingent from Australia and the crew of a French frigate “patrolling the southern part of the South China Sea”. The Balikatan-2024 exercise itself took place from the middle to the far north of both the Philippine land territory and the adjacent waters of the South China Sea.

The geography of this latest exercise was, in the consensus of commentators, one of the few major differences between the Balikatan-2024 exercise and all previous ones. While the current “geographic” feature itself, also included several components. First, the exercise’s maritime exercise space for the first time extended beyond the 12-mile zone of Philippine territorial waters. Secondly, they were substantially concentrated in the far north of the main Philippine island of Luzon, as well as in the strait of the same name.

The particular importance of the issue of control of the Luzon Strait also includes several significant points. Firstly, the strait serves as one of the main routes of communication between the waters of the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Second, it separates the island of Luzon from Taiwan, at about the same distance (about 250 kilometres) as the latter is from the coast of the PRC. Finally, several communication cables run beneath the surface of........

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