Saturday, April 10, 2004
Philippines to join US-Thai war games
BANGKOK -- The Philippines and Mongolia will join the United States, Thailand and Singapore next month in the largest annual war games for American troops with nearly 20,000 personnel involved, officials said Friday.
"This year, Cobra Gold has expanded to five participants, including the Philippines and Mongolia," which are due to send for the first time a total of 24 troops to the massive joint exercises scheduled May 13-27 along the Thai coast, a US embassy official said.
The air, land and sea maneuvers scheduled May 13-27 will include about 13,500 US service members, approximately 6,000 Thais and 95 Singaporeans, he added.
The 2003 drills involved a total of 13,000 military personnel.
This year's expanding multilateral nature of Cobra Gold "is injecting a little more of a real world scenario into the exercises," he said, referring to the international scope of peace enforcement operations, which are a key component in the training.
The live-fire exercises, launched 23 years ago and originally limited to US and Thai troops, will include an anti-terrorism component for the third straight year.
According to an embassy statement, Cobra Gold "is designed to improve US, Thai, Singaporean, Mongolian and Filipino combat readiness... enhance security relationships and demonstrate US resolve to support the security and humanitarian interests of US friends and allies in the region."
Ten other nations will observe this year's drills, including Australia, China, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
Malaysia declined a Thai invitation to be an observer, citing its lack of readiness to join. AFP
(April 10, 2004 issue)
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