US defence secretary Ashton Carter visited an aircraft carrier in the South China Sea on Thursday, amid rising tensions over Chinese sovereignty claims in the disputed waterway.
“There’s a lot of concern about Chinese behaviour out here,” Carter said during his three-hour visit to the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
He called the ship’s presence “a sign of the critical role that United States military power plays in what is a very consequential region for the American future”.
The move comes with Washington and Beijing engaged in a big-power face-off over Chinese assertions of sovereignty over virtually the entire South China Sea and its construction of islands via land reclamation to reinforce its claims.
Read | China’s aggression in South China Sea a global challenge
Last week Washington sent the guided missile destroyer USS Lassen to within 12 nautical miles of at least one of those man-made islands in the Spratlys chain.
The move, which angered China, was intended to press Washington’s right to freedom of passage through the area.
The enormous, nuclear-powered USS Theodore Roosevelt was located between 150-200 nautical miles south of the Spratly islands at the time of Carter’s visit.
{{/usCountry}}The enormous, nuclear-powered USS Theodore Roosevelt was located between 150-200 nautical miles south of the Spratly islands at the time of Carter’s visit.
{{/usCountry}}It was accompanied by the USS Lassen, but US officials have stressed that the aircraft carrier was on a routine transit of the South China Sea, and was not there to press the freedom of navigation issue.
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