Two Philippine Air Force FA-50 fighter jets fly with two U.S. Air Force B-1 bomber aircraft during a joint patrol and training over the South China Sea on Tuesday, Feb.4, 2025.

A flurry of naval drills surrounding the Philippines involving the United States and its partners has prompted complaints from Beijing, which claims the entire South China Sea and accuses Manila of colluding with others to destabilize the region.

The U.S. 7th Fleet based in Japan said forces from Australia, Japan, the Philippines, and the U.S. conducted a “multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity” within the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone on Wednesday.

Such drills “strengthen the interoperability of our defense/armed forces doctrines, tactics, techniques, and procedures," the fleet said in a news release. The maneuvers were taking place within the Philippines’ zone, but the fleet gave no details on the exact location.

More exercises involving the U.S., Japan and France were planned for later this week in the Philippines Sea, which China does not claim.

That exercise “is designed to advance coordination and cooperation between French, Japanese and U.S. maritime forces while simultaneously demonstrating capabilities in multi-domain operations,” the fleet said.

The U.S. aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, French carrier Charles De Gaulle and Japan's Izumo-class multi-functional destroyer Kaga will take part in the drill starting Saturday, along with their escorts and air wings, the fleet said.

France's participation is especially significant because of the distance from its home base, 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) away in Toulouse, commander of the Carrier Strike Group Rear Adm. Jacques Mallard was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, Tian Junli, spokesperson for China's Southern Theater Command, accused the Philippines of “colluding with outside countries to organize ‘so-called joint patrols’, " which he said ”destabilize the region," Chinese state media said on Thursday.

Tian said the Philippines actions were “an attempt to endorse its ‘illegal claims’ in the South China Sea and ”undermine China’s maritime rights and interests." He specifically pointed to U.S.-Philippines joint patrols on Tuesday and said China had carried out its own patrols in the region on Wednesday.

China is one of six regional powers that claims the strategic South China Sea in part or in whole, ignoring a ruling by a United Nations-backed court that tossed out most of its claims and building human-made islands equipped with airstrips and other infrastructure of military use. China's coast guard and maritime militia frequently clash with ships from fellow claimants Vietnam and the Philippines.

Though it claims not to disrupt shipping or overflights in the sea, through which an estimated $5 trillion in global trade transits each year, China is adamantly opposed to foreign military shipping in the area.

The waterway is also believed to be sitting atop vast undersea deposits of oil and gas and while China says it wants to come to a negotiated agreement about the use of the sea, such efforts have made little progress.

China says the U.S. and other countries that don't border on the sea should have no say in affairs concerning it, although the U.S. — which takes no formal stand on sovereignty issues involving the sea — has maintained bases and alliances in the region long before China made its formal claim to sovereignty using the so-called “eight dash line.”

Beijing is especially angered over U.S. “freedom of navigation operations” in which Navy ships sail close to Chinese-held maritime features to show Washington does not recognize China's sovereignty claims.

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Hegseth Talks South China Sea ‘Deterrence’ With Philippines

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reaffirmed Washington’s “ironclad” commitment to a mutual defense treaty with the Philippines during a call with his counterpart in Manila in the face of geopolitical tensions in South China Sea.

“The leaders discussed the importance of reestablishing deterrence in the South China Sea,” and the need to enhance “the capability and capacity” of the Philippine military, according to the readout of the Feb. 5 call between Hegseth and Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr.

The latest remark comes as Philippines seeks the US’ enduring support as it pushes back against what both sides see as Beijing’s aggressive behavior in the disputed South China Sea. The Philippines’ top diplomat in Washington is working on a meeting between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the new US leader in the spring.

Last month, State Secretary Marco Rubio criticized China’s dangerous and destabilizing” sea actions, sparking rebuke from Beijing.

Hegseth “reaffirmed the ironclad US commitment to the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty and its importance for maintaining a secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” the Pentagon said.

For its part, the Philippine government vowed to continue defending the country’s 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone or EEZ in the South China Sea despite Beijing’s aggressive actions that included the use of water cannon and military-grade laser, Marcos told reporters separately on Thursday.

“We will just continue to defend our sovereign territory and our territorial rights in the EEZ,” Marcos said. “We will always be there protecting our territory. We will always be there making sure our fishermen are able to exercise their sovereign rights.”

The Philippines has turned to the US and other countries to push back against Beijing’s sweeping claims over the disputed sea, which were invalidated by an international arbitration ruling in 2016.

On Wednesday, the US, Japan, Australia and the Philippines conducted a joint maritime drill involving in the Southeast Asian nation’s exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea.

The joint maritime activity aimed to “strengthen the interoperability of our defense/armed forces doctrines, tactics, techniques, and procedures,” the US 7th Fleet said in a separate statement.

China’s embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China has claimed its activities in the strategic waterway are legitimate, lawful and beyond reproach.

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