Washington – The Obama administration made it “absolutely clear” to China that the US will continue freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mark Richardson said Tuesday.
The US has been engaging in flights and naval activities in the disputed waters despite Chinese objections.
The warning comes just after an international tribunal in the Hague deemed the bulk of China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea to have no legal basis under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The case was brought by a fellow South China Sea claimant, the Philippines. China immediately dismissed the court decision as “null and void” and said it would not affect its claims.
Richardson, who just returned from a visit to China, said that he also made clear to his Chinese counterpart that any attempt by China to declare an air identification zone, or ADIZ, over the South China Sea, or efforts to build artificial islands in the Scarborough Shoal in disputed waters closer to the Philippines, were “clearly identified as concerns” for the US.
Richardson said that as close calls between US and Chinese warships grow more frequent, US and Chinese protocols for such encounters have been effective at avoiding escalation or misunderstanding.
Altogether, he said, “I see the relationship as progressing rather than at an impasse.”
As reported by CNN