Monitoring Desk
BANGKOK: Thousands of US soldiers on Friday joined South Korean and Thai forces on a beach in Thailand for one of the largest military exercises in Asia.
Now in its forty-second year, Cobra Gold brings thousands of soldiers from the US, Thailand, and other nations together for days of training.
Washington has sought to consolidate military alliances in the area in the face of an assertive China.
US, Thai, and South Korean troops began a joint amphibious operation near a navy base in the east of South Korea, in which jet planes screamed overhead, and tanks roared over the sand.
Personnel from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and Japan also participated in the exercises, which span air, sea, and land, as well as featured a course in jungle survival.
US contingent is bigger than previous year
With nearly 6,000 members, the US delegation was more than 4 times the size of the contingent that participated in 2022.
Last month, the US and the Philippines agreed to restart joint patrols in the South China Sea and inked a deal to give US forces access to 4 more military bases in the Philippines.
The US and South Korea have recently boosted joint military exercises following a year of weapons tests by North Korea, infuriating Pyongyang, which sees such exercises as rehearsals for aggression.
