(15 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Manila, Philippines – 15 April 2025
1. Wide of media briefing, reporter asking questions to Philippine Brig. Gen. Michael Logico and U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Doug Krugman of the 1st Marines Expeditionary Force
2. Mid of Logico and Krugman listening to question
3. Close of Logico and Krugman being recorded on mobile phones
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Brig. Gen. Michael Logico, Balikatan Exercise Director:
++AUDIO AS INCOMING++
"As you can see there is no scale back, whether there is a reduction in the number of people that is immaterial, what we are looking at is more purposive exercise."
5. Mid of Logico and Krugman listening to question
6. Close of Logico’s badge of Exercise Director alongside Balikatan arm patch
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Brig. Gen. Michael Logico, Balikatan Exercise Director:
++AUDIO AS INCOMING++
"When we are talking about the full battle test we are now treating exercises as rehearsals. We are implementing a plan that has been planned out in the previous Balikatan and that is what we will execute for this time. In the past we have a separation of what is planning exercise and what is a field training exercise, now we are doing it together."
8. Wide of Logico and Krugman shaking hands, leaving stage
STORYLINE:
Around 14,000 U.S. and Filipino forces will undertake largescale battle-readiness exercises in the Philippines, including live-fire drills, as part of ongoing joint efforts to deter aggression in the region, a Philippine military official announced Tuesday.
The annual Balikatan – Tagalog for shoulder to shoulder – military exercises between longtime treaty allies will be held from April 21 to May 9 and involve about 9,000 United States military personnel and 5,000 Filipino forces, Philippine Brig. Gen. Michael Logico said.
Philippine officials said the exercises demonstrate that President Donald Trump administration is not scaling back its commitment to security in the region.
China has frowned on such war drills in or near the disputed South China Sea and in northern Philippine provinces close to Taiwan, specially if they involve the U.S. and allied forces that Beijing says aim to contain it and consequently threaten regional stability and peace.
Australia would deploy about 200 military personnel and Japan and other U.S.-friendly nations would also send smaller military delegations.
Trump’s “America First” foreign policy thrust has triggered concerns in Asia about the scale and depth of U.S. commitment to maintain a longstanding security presence in the volatile region.
At a news briefing in Manila, Logico dismissed these concerns and described the drills as a "full battle test".
AP video shot by Joeal Calupitan
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