Indonesia, United States and its allies held a live-fire drill on Friday as part of annual joint combat exercises on Sumatra island amid growing Chinese maritime activity in the Indo-Pacific region. According to media reports, more than 5,000 personnel from the U.S., Indonesia, Australia, Japan and Singapore are participating in this year’s Super Garuda Shield exercises, making them the largest since they began in 2009.
On other hand, Chinese state media have accused the U.S. of building an Indo-Pacific alliance similar to NATO to limit China’s growing military and diplomatic influence in the region. The United Kingdom, Canada, France, India, Malaysia, South Korea, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and East Timor also sent observers to the exercises.