AFP chief meets with US Indo-Pacific Command head

United States Indo-Pacific Command (Indopacom) chief Adm. John Aquilino met on Tuesday with Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. to discuss boosting defense cooperation between Manila and Washington in the face of persistent Chinese encroachment in the West Philippine Sea.

Aquilino is in Manila as part of Washington’s two-day trade and investment mission in the Philippines. The meeting of the two officials at the AFP headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, came weeks after Brawner said the US official committed to conduct more joint naval maneuvers called Maritime Cooperative Activity to enhance the interoperability of Filipino and US forces.

READ: PH-Japan-India cooperation urged to boost Indo-Pacific stability

Their meeting also came ahead of the Balikatan or “shoulder-to-shoulder” exercises between their troops in April. The two officials, according to an AFP statement, likewise discussed the “strengthening of coordination with other militaries from like-minded nations to advance the rules-based international order and secure a free and open Indo-Pacific region.”

Starting on April 22, US and Filipino troops will conduct military drills in key locations in the Philippines, including the country’s northernmost island of Batanes and Palawan province, facing the West Philippine Sea.

The drills will be held amid Beijing’s growing aggression in the West Philippine Sea, waters within Manila’s 370-kilometer exclusive economic zone. —NESTOR CORRALES