US Holds Drills With the Philippines at Tiny Island Near Taiwan
- Itbayat is about 100 miles from Taiwan’s southermost tip
- Strategic Philippine location poses problem for China: analyst
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Black Hawk helicopters descended to Itbayat before noon on Monday, ushering a platoon of US and Philippine marines to conduct rare military drills on the Southeast Asian nation’s northernmost inhabited island — and one of its closest to Taiwan.
The 3,000 residents of the tiny island find themselves in the middle of a joint training exercise simulating the retaking of an airfield — part of the ongoing Balikatan, or “shoulder-to-shoulder,” exercises that Washington and Manila have been conducting annually for decades.