BEIJING: A Chinese fleet comprising three advanced warships set off on Wednesday from a military port in east China’s Qingdao City for naval drills and war games in the West Pacific Ocean, state media said.
The fleet of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy will likely pass through disputed waters in the East and South China Sea, it reported.
According to the official Xinhua news agency, the maneuvers as routine, but they come as China is engaged in an increasingly bitter, high stakes dispute over maritime territory with Japan and with several Southeast Asia nations.
“The fleet will carry out more than 20 types of exercises including naval confrontation, battle drills far out at sea, the protection of maritime rights and command and control,” Xinhua cited the Defence Ministry as saying in a statement.
“These exercises on the high seas will take in the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, the South China Sea, the Miyako Strait, the Bashi Channel and the seas to the east of Taiwan.”
DND
