Washington and Manilla have started a two-week long military drill, featuring 736 Filipino troops and a further 225 US soldiers, as tensions simmer in the South China Sea and tens of Chinese ships linger at a Filipino reef.
This year’s drills, which started on Monday, are significantly smaller than previous years because of the Covid-19 pandemic, with Filipino participation down from nearly 8,000 troops in previous years to fewer than 1,000.
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