Build up to WW3 - U.S. & PHILIPPINES Kick Off Major Live Fire WAR GAMES in South China Sea

The United States and the Philippines have launched mock assault drills on a South China Sea beach amid rising tensions between Manila and Beijing.

In the drills, dubbed Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder), 40 US and 80 Filipino Marines attacked a mock enemy tent before retreating to their rafts in Zambales Province on Friday. The exercises included amphibious operations from the coastline, practicing stealth landing and troop deployment at a nearby beach.

The US Marines said the maneuvers are meant to boost training and other capabilities. Armed Forces of the Philippines Balikatan co-director Lieutenant Annaleah Cazcarro, said the training was "just an exercise which enhances us to be more effective," and not related to tensions in the South China Sea.

The drill was set to be held in military camps in the northern and western Philippines. It includes maritime surveillance exercises, live-fire drills, training on handling bombs and "mass casualty response."

The exercise comes as tensions between China and the Philippines have been increasing over maritime and territorial disputes in recent months. The two countries have competing claims over a number of islands and shoals in the South China Sea.

The US and the Philippines have recently signed an accord that would give the American military greater access to bases across the Southeast Asian nation.

Beijing has already demanded that Washington stay out of regional disputes. But US President Barack Obama insists the new military pact is not designed to counter China in the region.

The two-week naval exercises, dubbed "Balikatan" (shoulder-to-shoulder), are ostensibly designed to help the two allies respond to emergencies, including piracy and natural disasters.

Nearly 5,500 American and Filipino service personnel will participate in the naval games, which will involve the participation of US F-18 fighter jets and soldiers involved in live ammo exercises, on the main island of Luzon.

The maneuvers, held on the edge of the South China Sea, come just one week after Manila and Washington hammered out the details of a new security agreement, the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which gives the US Navy broader access to local ports and military bases.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario made a veiled reference to China, with whom Manila has had territorial conflicts, when he said the exercises would help counter "excessive and expansive maritime and territorial claims."

"The aggressive patterns of behavior, aimed at changing the status quo, threaten peace and stability in the region. Balikatan 2014 with its focus on maritime security strongly supports our capabilities to address these challenges.

"It is silly that China is even being mentioned since the US has expressed its non-committal (sic) to defend the Philippines in the event of an armed confrontation with China,"

China and the Philippines have exchanged threats over ownership rights to the Spratly Islands, an archipelago in the South China Sea, which is believed to contain a vast quantity of oil and natural gas reserves. The islands, which spread over more than 425,000 square kilometers (164,000 square miles) of water, are also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam. cold war

Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday approved a series of joint military exercises with NATO countries that would put US troops in direct proximity to Russian forces in the annexed Crimea peninsula.

The decision came as NATO foreign ministers gathered in Brussels for a two-day meeting dominated by concern over the recent buildup of Russian forces near Crimea that US officials estimate had at one point reached about 40,000 troops.

NATO has sought to reinforce its eastern frontier after Russia's takeover of Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula and amid concerns about the Kremlin's emboldened foreign policy.

China reportedly "sunk" a mock US aircraft carrier with a state of the art missile during a war game in the Gobi Desert recently, fueling concerns that the newly emerging superpower is increasingly eyeing the United States as a military rival.