Joint US-Thai amphibious exercise

Описание: (17 Feb 2017) The United States and Thailand held an amphibious vehicle landing exercise on Friday as part of the annual multi-nation drill codenamed Cobra Gold.
Over 1,000 soldiers from the US Marines and Thai participated in Friday's exercise, along with dozens soldiers from South Korea.
The forces also took part in evacuation drill, designed to increase effectiveness in providing safety for civilians in conflict zones.
Cobra Gold, which is centred at the Sattahip Royal Thai Marine Corps Base in Chonburi, comes at an uncertain time for Thailand's relations with the US, China and Russia.
Thailand, for decades a stalwart American ally, saw relations with the US cool after its military overthrew a democratically elected government in 2014.
In response to the coup, the US froze millions in military aid.
In the past few years, the Thai army has turned to Chinese and Russian tanks and helicopters to replace outdated American equipment.
It also has been ramping up joint military exercises with China, and last year the army announced it would buy three Chinese submarines in a deal worth about 1 billion US dollars.
Twenty-nine countries, including China, India and Malaysia, are participating in or observing the exercises, which take place over 10 days and are scheduled to end on February 24th.
Some 3,600 American troops are attending this year, hundreds more than last year.

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