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TEHRAN, February 13 - A Royal Navy warship will sail through the South China Sea in an effort to assert freedom of navigation rights in waters where Beijing is increasingly extending its control.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - HMS Sutherland, a Type 23 frigate, will travel through the key trading lane after concluding a visit to Australia, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson announced.
China claims large areas of the South China Sea and has been bolstering its military deployments there, including reclaiming land on reefs and atolls to build air bases.
Williamson made the announcement during a visit to Australia to meet his counterpart Marise Payne in Sydney, where they discussed North Korea, cyber warfare and terrorism. The trip was also designed to push Australia to buy the UK’s Type 23 replacement, the BAE-built Type 26.
He told The Australian: “[Sutherland] will be sailing through the South China Sea and making it clear our Navy has a right to do that.
“World dynamics are shifting so greatly. The US can only concentrate on so many things at once. The US is looking for other countries to do more. This is a great opportunity for the UK and Australia to do more, to exercise leadership.”
The US navy also conducts freedom-of-navigation cruises in the South China Sea as a way of disputing Chinese influence.
Asked whether Sutherland would sail within 12 nautical miles – the UN-defined distance indicating territorial waters – of disputed areas or artificial Chinese islands, Williamson declined to comment but added: “We absolutely support the US approach on this, we very much support what the US has been doing.”
Last summer the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Stethem sailed within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island in the Paracel chain. China called the move a “serious political and military provocation” within its territorial waters.
The USS Hopper, a ship in the same class, passed by the Scarborough Shoal islet last month at a similar distance, prompting Beijing to say it would take “necessary measures to firmly safeguard its sovereignty”.
Williamson added in an interview with broadcaster ABC: “It’s very important that we demonstrate that these are seas anyone can pass through and we’ll be making sure that the Royal Navy will protect those rights for international shipping.
“Australia [and] Britain see China as a country of great opportunities, but we shouldn’t be blind to the ambition that China has and we’ve got to defend our national security interests.
Source: Independent
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