(RTHK) The Philippines and the United States began their biggest joint military drills since 2015 on Monday, underscoring renewed defence co-operation as improving ties between Manila and Beijing have cooled over the last year.

The annual “Balikatan” (shoulder-to-shoulder) exercises with US forces will involve 8,900 troops this year. Taking place over two weeks, they will include live fire exercises and training with amphibious assault vehicles.

Since taking office in 2016, the Philippine President, Rodrigo Duterte, has sought closer ties with China in exchange for pledges of loans, aid and investment, and distanced himself from the United States, a treaty ally.

Last year, however, he withdrew a threat to scrap a two-decade old pact that approves the presence of US troops on Philippine territory.

“We are sending a message to the world that the alliance between our countries is stronger than ever,” Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a statement.

At Duterte’s behest, the Balikatan deployment in 2017 fell to as low as 5,500 troops, half the number of the previous year, and was stripped of all combat-related exercises.

Live fire exercises returned in 2018 and 2019 but the scale of the drills remained smaller and in 2020 they were cancelled due to the pandemic. Only 640 troops took part last year.