LAOAG, Philippines: US and Filipino troops fired missiles and artillery at an imaginary “invasion” force during war games on the Philippines’ northern coast Monday, days after their governments objected to China’s “dangerous” actions in regional waters.

Thousands of troops are conducting land, sea and air maneuvers against a backdrop of increased confrontations between Chinese and Filipino vessels around shoals in the South China Sea claimed by Manila, as well as stepped-up Chinese air and naval activity around nearby self-ruled Taiwan.

US troops massed at a strip of sand dunes on Luzon island’s northwest coast - around 400 kilometers (249 miles) south of Taiwan - let loose more than 50 live 155mm howitzer rounds at floating targets about five kilometers off the coast, AFP journalists saw. Filipino troops followed up by firing rockets aimed at wearing down the attackers, before the two forces finished the job with machine guns, Javelin missiles and more artillery rounds.

Meanwhile, President Ferdinand Marcos said Monday the Philippines would not respond in kind to China’s deployment of water cannon against its vessels, ruling out the use of “offensive” equipment as Manila asserts its sovereignty in the disputed South China Sea. Beijing has dispatched hundreds of coast guard and other vessels to press its claims over most of the waterway despite an international tribunal ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

In the latest confrontation on April 30, Manila said the China Coast Guard damaged a Philippine Coast Guard ship and another government vessel with high-pressure water cannon as the boats were bringing fuel, food and water to Filipino fishermen at Scarborough Shoal.

“We will not follow the Chinese coast guard and the Chinese vessels down that road,” Marcos said Monday when asked if Manila would start using the water cannons on its own coast guard vessels to retaliate.

“It’s not the mission of our navy, our coast guard to start or to increase tensions... We have no intention of attacking anyone with water cannons or any other such offensive (equipment).” Marcos added that “the last thing” the Philippines wanted was “to raise the tensions” in the disputed waters.

Asked about Marcos’ comments at a regular briefing on Monday, a spokesperson for Beijing’s foreign ministry urged Manila to “stop spreading false information that misleads the international community” and “stop forming cliques and showing off military force”.

A Philippine Coast Guard spokesman said Wednesday that Manila’s strategy was to expose and seek international condemnation of Beijing’s behavior in the South China Sea to encourage united efforts to ensure freedom of navigation in the strategic waterway. Marcos said Monday that the Philippines would continue responding to South China Sea incidents through diplomatic means.

Last week, Manila summoned a senior Chinese envoy to protest “the harassment, ramming, swarming, shadowing and blocking, dangerous maneuvers, (and) use of water cannons” by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine boats off the disputed Scarborough Shoal.

Manila and Washington have a mutual defense treaty, and the recent confrontations between Philippine and Chinese vessels have fuelled speculation as to what might force the United States to intervene.

Marcos said last month that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had given assurances that the treaty would be invoked if another “foreign power” killed a Filipino soldier. Lieutenant General Michael Cederholm, commander of the US First Marine Expeditionary Force, said the exercise was “to prepare for the worst” by “securing key maritime terrain”.

“It’s designed to repel an invasion,” Cederholm told reporters at the exercise site. “Our northwestern side is more exposed,” Major General Marvin Licudine, exercise director for the Filipinos, told AFP ahead of the live firing at the La Paz sand dunes near Laoag city. “Because of the regional problems that we have... we have to already practice and orient ourselves in our own land in these parts,” he added.

Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis. It deploys hundreds of coast guard, navy and other vessels to patrol and militarize the waters. Asked about Monday’s drills, China’s foreign ministry warned that “any military exercise should not be targeted at or harm the interests of third parties”.

“Countries in the region can all see clearly who is currently provoking military confrontation and escalating tensions in the region,” spokesman Lin Jian told a regular briefing. — AFP