The U.S. has rescinded an invitation for China to take part in its multinational naval exercise in the Pacific, accusing Beijing of reneging on a promise not to militarize islands in the South China Sea, the Pentagon announced Wednesday.
“We have strong evidence that China has deployed anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missile systems, and electronic jammers to contested features in the Spratly Islands region of the South China Sea. China’s landing of bomber aircraft at Woody Island has also raised tensions,” said Lt. Col. Christopher Logan, a Pentagon spokesman in a statement emailed to news media.
“We believe these recent deployments and the continued militarization of these features is a violation of the promise that President Xi made to the United States and the World not to militarize the Spratly Islands,” Logan said.
Chinese bombers including the H-6K conduct takeoff and landing training on an island reef at a southern sea area pic.twitter.com/ASY9tGhfAU
— People’s Daily,China (@PDChina) May 18, 2018
The exercise, known as Rim of the Pacific or RIMPAC, is scheduled for late next month and involves some 27 nations.
“The United States is committed to a free and open Indo-Pacific. China’s continued militarization of disputed features in the South China Sea only serve to raise tensions and destabilize the region,” the statement said.
“As an initial response to China’s continued militarization of the South China Sea we have disinvited the PLA Navy from the 2018 Rim of the Pacific Exercise. China’s behavior is inconsistent with the principles and purposes of the RIMPAC exercise.”
