Philippines, Partners Hold Drills In The South China

Two F/A-18E Super Hornet, attached to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 151, fly over the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72). Abraham Lincoln, flagship of Carrier Strike Group Three, is underway conducting routine operations in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations. U.S. 7th Fleet is the U.S. Navy’s largest forward-deployed numbered fleet, and routinely interacts and operates with allies and partners in preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass

The Philippines held maritime drills with the United States and Japan inside its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, its military said on Friday, two days after a maritime confrontation with Beijing around a disputed shoal.

The drills, which brought together a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft, Philippine Navy ship BRP Andres Bonifacio and a C-90 small plane, and Japan’s Murasame-class destroyer JS Samidare, are the Philippines’ latest round of exercises with allies this year in the face of an increasingly assertive China.

The exercises were conducted “in a manner that is consistent with international law, and with due regard for the safety of navigation, and the rights and interests…