QINGDAO (China) • Warships from Singapore, India, Australia and several other nations arrived in the eastern Chinese port city of Qingdao yesterday to attend a naval parade, part of a goodwill visit as China extends the hand of friendship despite regional tensions and suspicions.
Tomorrow, China will mark 70 years since the founding of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, where it will show off new warships, including nuclear submarines and destroyers, at a major review in the waters off Qingdao.
Beijing says warships from about a dozen nations are also taking part - one diplomatic source with direct knowledge said it was 13 countries in total - and the PLA is putting its best foot forward to welcome them.
A Republic of Singapore Navy frigate arrived last Friday in Qingdao, becoming the first foreign warship to arrive, China Daily reported.
India, which has been at odds with China over their disputed land border and Beijing's support for India's regional rival Pakistan, has sent stealth guided-missile destroyer INS Kolkata to take part, along with a supply ship.
Captain Aditya Hara said to reporters on the dockside in Qingdao: "We bring to you one of the best ships that we have made. It is the pride of the nation and the navy, and we are very happy to be here."
A source familiar with the situation told Reuters the Kolkata had sailed through the Taiwan Strait to get to Qingdao, a sensitive waterway that separates China from self-ruled Taiwan, claimed by Beijing as Chinese territory.
"We headed on a direct route and we are very happy that we were facilitated by the PLA Navy and they ensured that we had a safe passage to Qingdao," Capt Hara said, when asked if they had sailed via the Taiwan Strait.
Australia, a close ally of the United States, has sent the HMAS Melbourne, a guided-missile frigate, to Qingdao, though officials declined to make the captain available for interview.
Beijing and Canberra have sparred over Australian suspicions of Chinese interference in the country's politics and Australia's banning of China's Huawei Technologies from supplying equipment for its planned 5G broadband network.
Japan has also sent a destroyer to Qingdao, in the first visit of a Japanese navy ship to China since 2011, according to Japanese media.
Ties between China and Japan, the world's second-and third-largest economies respectively, have been plagued by a long-running territorial dispute over a cluster of East China Sea islets and suspicion in China about Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to amend Japan's pacifist Constitution.
But they have sought to improve relations recently, with Mr Abe visiting Beijing in October, when both countries pledged to forge closer ties and signed a broad range of agreements, including a US$30 billion (S$40 billion) currency swap pact.
The other countries taking part include China's close friend Russia, and three countries which have sparred with China over competing claims in the disputed South China Sea: Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Pakistan, a close Chinese ally, is not on the list of countries sending ships to the parade.
REUTERS, CHINA DAILY/THE ASIA NEWS NETWORK
