US-PH war games in Batanes is not linked to China-Taiwan row, says AFP

Philippine marines take their positions after being dislodged by a fast boat with their US counterparts during the joint US – Philippine military exercise dubbed Balikatan 2014 on Friday, May 9, 2014. The event was held at the Naval Training Exercise Command, a former US naval that faces South China Sea in San Antonio town, Zambales. (File photo from AP)

MANILA, Philippines — The selection of Batanes as a possible venue for the annual war games between the Philippines and the United States has nothing to do with Taiwan.

Executive agent of Balikatan 2024 Colonel Michael Logico from the Armed Forces of the Philppines (AFP) made the statement.

He also confirmed that the northernmost island province is being considered as a site for the drills to be held next month.

“Batanes is one of the locations that we are considering in the execution of Balikatan,” Logico said in a regular press conference of the AFP on Tuesday.

Batanes’ Mavulis Island and the provincial capital of Basco are also being eyed as among the possible venues for this year’s war games between Manila and Washington.

This information is based on a Philippine Daily Inquirer report.

Mavulis Island, also a northern island in the country, is just 142 kilometers away from Cape Eluanbi, the southernmost point of Taiwan.

Despite the geographical proximity, Logico said, “we are not focused on Taiwan because the exercise is not happening in Taiwan.”

“The exercise is happening within our territorial waters and our territories, so it is natural for us to exercise in those areas,” he pointed out.

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. called for the building of more structures in these areas.

He also ordered the military to increase its presence in Batanes.

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. previously allowed Washington access to four more Philippine military bases under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca) in April 2023.

Three of these bases, two in Cagayan and another one in Isabela, are facing Taiwan.

The new Edca sites irked Beijing.

It alleged that the agreement between Washington and Manila was made so that Washington could “encircle and contain China.”

Beijing said this situation would drag the Philippines into “the Taiwan question.”

The Philippine government rejected this claim.

Taiwan broke away from mainland China in 1949 after the country was taken over by Mao Zedong’s communist forces.

Taiwan is a self-ruled democratic island that China regards as a renegade province subject to reunification.