The training will include air support, strikes against ground targets and small and large-scale troop deployment, China’s defense ministry said in a statement posted on its website. China’s expanding military activities in the Asia-Pacific region have alarmed the United States and its allies and are part of a growing strategic and economic rivalry that has fueled tensions between the world’s two largest economies. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Thailand in June as part of an effort to strengthen what he called America’s “unmatched network of alliances and partnerships” in the region. The Falcon Strike exercise will be conducted at Udorn Royal Thai Air Base in northern Thailand near the border with Laos. Thai fighter jets and airborne early warning aircraft from both countries will also participate. The training comes as the US conducts combat exercises in Indonesia with Indonesia, Australia, Japan and Singapore in the largest iteration of the Super Garuda Shield exercises since they began in 2009. It also follows China sending warships, missiles and aircraft into the waters and air around Taiwan in a threatening response to a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the self-ruled island, which China claims as its territory. . Kurt Campbell, President Joe Biden’s top adviser on the Indo-Pacific, said on Friday that the US would take decisive steps to support Taiwan, including sending warships and aircraft through the 100-mile-wide waterway that separates Taiwan. and Taiwan. China. “We will continue to fly, sail and operate where international law allows, consistent with our longstanding commitment to freedom of navigation,” he said on a call with reporters. “And that includes conducting routine air and sea crossings through the Taiwan Strait in the coming weeks.”
