The United States military kicked off two weeks of multilateral exercises with its Philippine allies and multiple international partners on Monday amid rising tensions between Manila and Beijing over territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

Maritime Training Activity Sama Sama 2023 is the seventh and largest iteration of the drills as participants from Australia, Canada, France, Japan, the United Kingdom and Malaysia join the US and the Philippines, according to a US Navy press release.

The exercises off the Philippine coast will include drills on anti-submarine, surface and air warfare as well as land phases, the release said.