Two U.S. carrier groups performed joint workout routines in the South China Sea on Tuesday, days following a U.S. warship sailed close to Chinese-controlled islands in the disputed waters that have emerged as an additional flashpoint in strained Sino-U.S. relations.
The Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group and the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group “conducted a multitude of exercises aimed at increasing interoperability between assets as well as command and control capabilities”, the U.S. Navy mentioned, marking the initially dual carrier operations in the busy waterway because July 2020.
The exercising comes days following China condemned the sailing of the destroyer, the USS John S. McCain, close to the Chinese-controlled Paracel Islands in what the United States calls a freedom of navigation operation – the initially such mission by the U.S. navy because President Joe Biden took workplace.
The United States has contested China’s substantial territorial claims in the area, accusing it of militarising the South China Sea and attempting to intimidate neighbours such as Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, who have claims that overlap with China’s in the resource-wealthy region.
“We are committed to ensuring the lawful use of the sea that all nations enjoy under international law,” Rear Admiral Jim Kirk, commander of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, mentioned in a statement.
China has been infuriated by repeated U.S. sailings close to the islands it occupies and controls in the South China Sea. China says it has irrefutable sovereignty and has accused the United States of deliberately stoking tension.
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