Pawan Kumar
The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps are conducting joint exercises in the South China Sea.
The 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit and the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier strike group have been conducting “integrated expeditionary strike force operations” in the South China Sea, according to the 7th Fleet, located in Japan, which made the announcement on Sunday.
It mentioned Saturday’s drills involving ships, ground troops, and aircraft but provided no information regarding when they started or when they ended.
A $5 trillion worth of commodities are transported through the disputed waterway every year, and China asserts that it controls nearly the whole South China Sea. China also vehemently opposes any military engagement in the area by other countries.
The United States insists that overflight and navigational freedom must be protected despite not having a formal position on sovereignty in the South China Sea. Every year, it sends ships sailing past fortified Chinese outposts in the Spratly Islands, drawing vehement rebukes from Beijing.
The Chinese coast guard and supposedly civilian but government-backed boats have been invading islands and fishing grounds, thus the United States has been fortifying its defence partnership with the Philippines.
The military drills by the United States were prepared beforehand. They happen at a time when already strained relations between Washington and Beijing have been made worse by a diplomatic spat brought on by the balloon, which was shot down last weekend in American airspace off the coast of South Carolina.
Beijing maintains that it was a meteorological research airship that had unintentionally blown off course, despite the U.S.’s claim that the unmanned balloon was outfitted to detect and gather intelligence signals.
Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, hastily postponed a crucial trip to Beijing last weekend that was intended to defuse tensions in response to the incident.
China has stepped up its rhetoric, calling the U.S. action an overreaction and a violation of international rules, after initially expressing remorse for the incident in a most unusual manner. A call from Lloyd Austin, the defence secretary of the United States, to China’s minister of defence, was not accepted.
As a result of the event, the United States has since banned six Chinese organisations that it claims are connected to Beijing’s aerospace activities. Additionally, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to denounce China for its “brazen infringement” of American sovereignty and its attempts to “deceive the world community through misleading assertions about its intelligence collection programmes.”
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According to the Pentagon, the balloon was a component of China’s extensive surveillance operation that it has been running for some years. China’s balloon programme was further investigated after the United States closely watched the balloon that was shot down near South Carolina, according to the United States, which claims that Chinese balloons have recently flown over dozens of nations on five continents.
According to the joint operation’s news release, the 7th Fleet has “established a robust presence in the region, which supports peace and security.”
“As a quick response force, we support a broad range of tasks, including landing Marines ashore, humanitarian disaster relief, and deterring prospective enemies through visible and present combat might,” the announcement stated.
