China alarmed as US and Philippines hold largest-ever joint military drills.

China warns that the deepening security alliance between the US and the Philippines should not harm its security and territorial interests and interfere in long-simmering territorial disputes in the South China Sea. The US and Philippine defense and foreign secretaries met to discuss the development of nine Philippine military camps, where American forces have been allowed to stay indefinitely under the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. The ongoing drills, which started in the early 1990s, will showcase US warships, fighter jets, Patriot missiles, HIMARS rocket launchers, and anti-tank Javelins, according to US and Philippine military officials.