San antonio: In the South China Sea, where China has territorial claims, Australian and Filipino forces conducted training exercises on Friday. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos praised the exercises as a "extremely important" illustration of close cooperation.

Despite a global ruling that finds that its position lacks legal support, China continues to send out hundreds of coast guard, navy, and other vessels to patrol and militarise reefs in the South China Sea. The joint training exercises on Friday were held at a naval base about 240 kilometres (155 miles) east of Scarborough Shoal, a productive fishing area that China angrily took from the Philippines in 2012 after a protracted standoff.

According to Marcos, "this kind of exercise, this kind of close strategic cooperation between countries around the region is extremely important considering there have been so many events that attest to the volatility of the region."

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He and Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles watched the drills, and he described them as "an important aspect of how we prepare for any eventuality." These are the first significant land, sea, and air exercises between the two nations. They acted out the recapture of an island under enemy control.

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In the exercise, 1,200 Australian and 560 Filipino soldiers descended on a beach in amphibious assault vehicles, parachute, and US Osprey aircraft.

Close air support was provided by two modern Australian F-35 fighter jets, and the surrounding waters were secured by Australian warships. After Chinese coast guard ships used water cannon to block a Philippine supply mission to Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea on August 18, the exercise followed. 

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In order to impede China's advance in the region, the Philippine Navy purposefully grounded a World War II-era ship on the shoal and established a small garrison there in 1999. A second Philippine mission succeeded in supplying the outpost on Tuesday.

The Philippine vessels "did not carry illegal building materials for large-scale reinforcements," according to the Chinese coast guard, who said they had made the decision to permit the resupply out of humanitarian considerations.

This week, the Philippines hosted a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, China, and other participants to discuss a code of conduct for the South China Sea