U.S. and Philippine forces have begun their largest annual military exercises under President Rodrigo Duterte, who wanted to scale down America’s military presence and involvement in combat drills as he sought closer ties with China and Russia.

The Balikatan exercises opened Monday and were to involve combat drills in mock urban settings to train special forces in battling terrorists in cities following an Islamic State-linked siege on southern Marawi city last year.

After rising to power in 2016, Duterte vowed to scale back the presence of U.S. troops involved in counterterrorism training in the country’s south and once threatened to end the annual drills with American forces.

These will be the largest joint drills since Duterte took office. Philippine officials stress they are not aimed at China.

The Philippines and the United States began a large-scale annual military exercise Monday that includes a drill on part of Luzon island facing the South China Sea.

More than 8,000 troops will participate in the exercise, dubbed “Balikatan” (shoulder to shoulder), which is expected to run through May 18, with troops from Japan and Australia also joining as they have in the last two years.

The Philippine military said drills will be held in different parts of the country, including in the central provinces of Zambales and Tarlac.

“This year, Balikatan will focus on interoperability training to address traditional and non-traditional security concerns,” Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said at the opening ceremony at Camp Aguinaldo, the country’s main military camp in Manila.

(SD-Agencies)