Philippines, US launch scaled-down military exercises

Manila : The Philippines and the United States launched annual military exercises on Monday but the longtime allies scaled them down in line with President Rodrigo Duterte's pivot to China and Russia.

Duterte in his 10 months in office has sought to weaken ties with the United States -- the Philippines' mutual defence treaty partner and former colonial ruler -- saying its role as a global superpower is diminishing.

The 12-day "Balikatan" war games that began on Monday will involve fewer than half the number of soldiers than in 2015 during the term of Duterte's pro-American predecessor Benigno Aquino.

There will also be no focus on strengthening the Philippines' maritime defence capabilities. In previous years this had been widely seen as a show of strength against Beijing over competing claims in the South China Sea.

Duterte has reversed Aquino's policy of challenging China forcefully over the maritime territorial row, choosing instead to pursue closer economic, political and military relations with Beijing.

Officials from both sides spoke in glowing terms at the opening ceremony for Balikatan (meaning "Shoulder-to-shoulder") about the upcoming exercise and their nations' military relations.

But the American co-director for Balikatan, Lieutenant-General Lawrence Nicholson, said the US hoped the exercises would expand again.

"If you look back on 33 years of Balikatan, they are all different. There are any number of ways it can change. It can be bigger, it can be smaller. We hope it gets bigger," Nicholson told reporters at Philippine military headquarters.