US ‘very interested’ to tap more countries in war games with PH

US Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Scott Swift. AP FILE PHOTO

US Pacific Fleet commander Admiral Scott Swift, who visited the country recently, expressed interest in including more countries in its war games with the Philippines.

“[H]e commended Philippine efforts to hold military readiness exercises with US allies like Japan, which held search and rescue drills for the first time with the Philippine Navy last month,” the US Embassy said in a statement on Monday.

“Admiral Swift also disclosed that he was ‘very interested’ in expanding annual US Navy-AFP combat exercises into multilateral engagements with other partner-nations,” it added.

Swift was in the country last July 16 to 19, and he joined a surveillance mission in the South China Sea, a portion of which is being claimed by the Philippines amid the reclamation efforts of China.

He also joined a wreath laying ceremony at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial and engaged with Philippine military leaders.

He assumed as the commander of the US Pacific Fleet only last May and the Philippines was the first country he visited in the region.

“It is important that the approach be multilateral approach, not a bilateral one. These problems are common to many countries, not just one,” he was quoted by the US Embassy as saying.

The Mutual Defense Treaty and the Visiting Forces Agreement between the United States and the Philippines allow the US soldiers to do military exercises in the Philippines.

The US Pacific Fleet, which holds quarter in Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, is the largest naval headquarters with about 200 ships and submarines, over a thousand aircraft and 140,000 sailors and civilians. IDL

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