Philippine army chief on Monday said it is seeking to expand its bilateral military exercise with the United States to a multilateral one with more countries involved.
At the closing ceremony of the two-week Balikatan Philippine- American war game, General Hermogenes Esperon Jr., chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said there are advantages into pushing for a multilateral war game.
"It is better to do things altogether, and we not only talk of the security of the Philippines but the security of the region itself should be looked at," he said.
Thailand, Brunei, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore sent observer teams to this year's Balikatan, which involved 6,000American soldiers and 2,000 Filipinos, focusing on cooperation to deliver humanitarian assistance at the time of natural disasters.
Balikatan, or "shoulder by shoulder" in English translation, is based on the Visiting Forces Agreement signed by the Philippine and the U.S. governments in late 1990s.
The U.S. is the only foreign country the Philippines has an agreement on collaboration of military exercises. A similar proposal for Philippine-Australian bilateral war game is sleeping on Philippine senators' table.
Defense officials are also in the process of discussing possible status of forces agreement with southeastern countries such as Brunei and Singapore.
"When we go multilateral, I would imagine that it would still be the United States and the Philippines that will determine most of that because we are the primary participants here," the army chief said.
The bilateral war game has seen much local demonstration in recent years, especially after an American soldier was convicted of raping a Filipino woman in 2005. The war game was suspended in 2006 due to the raping controversy.
Source: Xinhua
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