Australian, British, Japanese and South Korean forces also take part in the exercise, which is called Kamandag – or Venom – and is held every year.
The exercise began on Tuesday, the day after China conducted a 13-hour military exercise around Taiwan.
A top US military official, Stuart Glenn, says the exercise will help the US and its allies react to “any crisis or eventuality”.
However, Philippine defense officials stress that Kamandag has been planned for a long time and that it has nothing to do with the dispute over Taiwan, which has been self-governing for over 70 years but which China considers Chinese territory.
The exercise takes place both along the north coast of the island of Luzon, which is the Philippines’ most important island, at small Philippine islands between Luzon and Taiwan, as well as at the island of Palawan in the west of the Philippines, an island facing the South China Sea.
China and the Philippines have conflicting interests in the South China Sea. Among other things, the dispute is over the Spratley Islands and the surrounding waters, which both China and the Philippines claim.
China claims that it has the right to large parts of the South China Sea and has ended up on a collision course with several other countries in the region that claim some of the same areas.
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