The largest-ever military exercise on Australian soil commenced on Sunday and will feature more than 35,000 personnel from nearly twenty countries, including the United States.

This marks the 11th iteration of the biennial Talisman Sabre exercise, which will take place over the next three weeks.

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This year’s participants include Canada, Fiji, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga, and the United Kingdom, in addition to the U.S. and Australia.

The 19 countries participating in the military exercise are the most ever for the drill; Malaysia and Vietnam are attending the training as observers.

From the U.S. specifically, it will feature members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, and Space Force.

“Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025 is a powerful demonstration of our combined strength, trust, interoperability, and readiness across the Indo-Pacific,” Lt. Gen. Joel B. Vowell, Deputy Commanding General U.S. Army Pacific, said in a statement. “As part of the Combined Joint Force, we train diligently and realistically to integrate capabilities across land, sea, air, cyber, and space domains, operating alongside our allies and partners from 19 nations.”

Troops will participate in live-fire exercises and field training activities, incorporating force preparation activities, amphibious landings, ground force maneuvers, and air and maritime operations.

For the first time in the history of this joint training, which began in 2005, it will include exercises conducted outside of Australia, including drills in Australia’s nearest neighbor, Papua New Guinea.

Vowell noted that one of the mission’s goals is to ensure the coalition of countries continues and increases its interoperability and to continue to maintain and increase deterrence, particularly toward China, which the U.S. government believes is its biggest competitor and pacing challenge.

“Exercises like Talisman Sabre allow us to employ war winning capabilities, operate in critical locations, signal our multinational resolve, and galvanize our collective will,” he said. “This is how we generate deterrence and work towards our ultimate goal: no war.”

Australian Minister for Defense Industry Pat Conroy said they expect China to monitor the exercises because Beijing has done so for previous iterations.

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“The Chinese military have observed these exercises since 2017. It’d be very unusual for them not to observe it,” Conroy said, according to the Associated Press. “We’ll adjust accordingly. We’ll obviously observe their activities and monitor their presence around Australia, but we’ll also adjust how we conduct those exercises.”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is currently on a visit to China, said such surveillance “would be nothing unusual.”