More than 17,000 soldiers from seven countries launched the annual Balikatan ("shoulder to shoulder" in Filipino) joint military drills across the Philippines on April 20, with US and Philippine officials describing this year's exercises as the largest and most complex in the event's history. For the first time, troops from Japan's Self-Defense Forces are participating on Philippine soil — a historic development marking the first Japanese military presence in the country since World War II, enabled by a bilateral Reciprocal Access Agreement signed two years ago. The three-week exercises, which include maritime strike drills and logistical operations concentrated near the contested waters of the West Philippine Sea and the Taiwan Strait, come as Washington seeks to reassure Indo-Pacific partners of its continued regional commitment even as US military attention is strained by an ongoing conflict with Iran in the Middle East — a war that has already caused France to scale back its Balikatan deployment to a token contingent of 15–20 personnel.