BEIJING • China has confirmed it will send warships to join a major United States-hosted naval drill in the summer, even as tension between the world's two largest economies mounts over the South China Sea.
The Rim of the Pacific exercise, known as Rimpac, is billed as the world's largest international maritime drill, held every two years in Hawaii in June and July.
Critics of the Obama administration, including Senator John McCain, have said the US should bar China from the drills to show US disapproval of its military actions.
The US and its allies have expressed growing concern over the Asian giant's military build-up, as well as its increasingly assertive posture in the South China Sea.
"Joining these military exercises will be beneficial to improving the Chinese navy's ability to contend with non-traditional security threats," China's Ministry of Defence spokesman Wu Qian told a regular briefing. "At the same time, it will also be beneficial to deepening... professional exchanges and pragmatic cooperation with the relevant countries' navies."
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Ready for the future
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Australia's Defence White Paper aims to serve the country's security needs for decades to come. Its salient proposals include:
A$195 billion: Investment in defence capability over the next 10 years
2 per cent: Proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) to be spent on defence by 2020-2021
25 per cent: Proportion of extra defence outlay earmarked for navy Acquisitions for naval fleet
•12 new submarines
• 9 new anti-submarine frigates
•12 new offshore patrol vessels
• 3 destroyers
5,000: Personnel additions across army, navy and air force, taking total number to 62,400
72: Number of F-35s, known as joint strike fighters, added from 2020
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS, BLOOMBERG
China will send warships to participate, the spokesman said, but did not say how many or what kind. "Needless to say, military relations between China and the US have some difficulties and obstacles," he added, citing US arms sales to Taiwan and reconnaissance by US warships near Chinese territory.
also criticised US patrols in the South China Sea.
Admiral Harry Harris, chief of the US Pacific Command, has said he wants to build ties between the two militaries, but has also strongly criticised China's actions in the South China Sea.
Since last October, the US Navy has conducted two freedom- of-navigation operations in the South China Sea, saying these are an important way of upholding international law.
On Wednesday, he said the US would increase the freedom-of- navigation missions.
"We will be doing them more, and we will be doing them with greater complexity in the future and... we will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows," Adm Harris told a hearing of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.
A day earlier, he also said China was "changing the operational landscape" in the South China Sea by deploying missiles and radar as part of an effort to militarily dominate East Asia. China, however, insists that its military facilities are "legal and appropriate".
Past participants in Rimpac have included nations such as Russia, which are not treaty allies with the US. China took part in 2014 with more than 20 countries, but defence officials have said its participation was limited to areas such as humanitarian relief and search and rescue operations.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
