US joins Japan, S. Korea, Australia for naval drills in Western Pacific

South Korean naval destroyers sail with the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in the western Pacific Ocean. (File photo: Reuters)

The Pacific Vanguard exercise near the US island of Guam takes place ahead of President Donald Trump's visit to Japan this weekend.

"Pacific Vanguard joins forces from four, like-minded maritime nations that provide security throughout the Indo-Pacific based on shared values and common interests," Vice Admiral Phillip Sawyer, commander of the US Navy's Seventh Fleet, said in a statement.

The six-day exercise involves two Japanese destroyers, two Australian frigates and a destroyer from South Korea, with as many as 3,000 sailors participating.

The US Navy has deployed five ships as well as fighter jets and maritime patrol planes for the drills, which include live fire and anti-submarine warfare exercises.

Pacific Vanguard is the latest show of combined naval force in the Asia Pacific region.

This month US ships conducted drills with French, Japanese and Australian ships in the Bay of Bengal, and held separate exercises with a Japanese helicopter carrier and warships from India and the Philippines in the East Sea.

On Wednesday, the US Navy sent two ships through the Taiwan Strait, its latest transit through the waterway./.

VNF/Reuters