SYDNEY (Reuters) -&nbsp;Australia's&nbsp;Defence&nbsp;Minister&nbsp;Richard Marles will&nbsp;travel&nbsp;to the&nbsp;Philippines&nbsp;to&nbsp;observe&nbsp;joint training&nbsp;drills&nbsp;focussed on regional security, his office said on Monday, amid tensions between the&nbsp;Philippines&nbsp;and China in the South China Sea.
More than 2,000&nbsp;Australian and Philippine&nbsp;defence&nbsp;personnel will participate in amphibious landing and air assault&nbsp;drills, with two&nbsp;Australian navy vessels, HMAS Canberra and HMAS ANZAC, having arrived to conduct the bilateral exercises with the&nbsp;Philippines&nbsp;Navy.
Australia&nbsp;holds annual&nbsp;defence&nbsp;exercises in South East Asia, although it is the first amphibious exercise - the movement of ground and air forces from ship to shore - with the&nbsp;Philippines.
Philippines&nbsp;military chief Romeo Brawner told reporters the exercise in Palawan, held on Monday by&nbsp;Australia, the&nbsp;Philippines&nbsp;and a U.S. aircraft, was "not directed against China".
Palawan is a southwest island province near the South China Sea.
China and the&nbsp;Philippines&nbsp;have been embroiled for years in on-off confrontations at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.
At the bilateral&nbsp;drills&nbsp;in the&nbsp;Philippines, Exercise Alon will involve 1,500&nbsp;Australian&nbsp;defence&nbsp;personnel, 1,200 Philippine personnel and 150 U.S. Marines who are part of the U.S. rotational force in Darwin in&nbsp;Australia's north.
An&nbsp;Australian&nbsp;defence&nbsp;statement last week said Exercise Alon will involve a "simulated, combined air assault using [US Marines Corp] Osprey tiltrotor aircraft in Palawan, a combined amphibious demonstration at Zambales and artillery and aviation live-fire serials at Crow Valley" in the&nbsp;Philippines.
Zambales is also near the South China Sea.
Australian Prime&nbsp;Minister&nbsp;Anthony Albanese has said he will make the first visit by an&nbsp;Australian leader to the&nbsp;Philippines&nbsp;in 20 years next month, to discuss&nbsp;defence&nbsp;and security cooperation.
Albanese on Monday played down the&nbsp;Australian navy deployment to the&nbsp;Philippines&nbsp;for training exercises, against the backdrop of the China tensions.
"This is business as usual,&nbsp;Australia&nbsp;conducts activities in our region," he said.
Marles will also stop in Malaysia to meet his counterpart, his office said.
&nbsp;
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney and Enrico Dela Cruz in Manila; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

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Australia defence minister to travel to Philippines to observe drills