Off the shores of Palawan, more than 3,600 troops from Australia and the Philippines are taking part in their largest-ever military drills, marking a decisive shift in Canberra’s Indo-Pacific security strategy.
Exercise Alon, launched on Friday, is taking place less than 300 nautical miles (555km) from the Philippine-held Thitu Island in the Spratly archipelago – an area at the heart of escalating territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
Beijing claims the Spratly island group alongside…
