(NewsWorthy.news) – A US Coast Guard vessel carrying out a routine patrol on July 10 in the Bering Sea discovered multiple Chinese navy vessels that were inside the US exclusive economic zone, albeit in international waters, according to Coastal Guard officials.
The US Coast Guard Cutter Kimball found three vessels roughly 124 miles north of the Amchitka Pass, Aleutian Islands. Members of a Coast Guard helicopter’s aircrew, who were based at Air Station Kodiak, detected a fourth military vessel roughly 84 miles north of the strait soon afterwards.
The Coastal Guard’s statement revealed that all of the vessels linked to the People’s Republic of China were within the US EEZ, whose boundary lies roughly 200 miles from the US coastline. Rear Admiral Megan Dean, commander of the Seventeenth Coast Guard District, clarified that the Chinese vessels complied with international law, adding that the Coast Guard “met presence with presence” to ensure that the PRC’s ships did not disrupt American interests in the Alaska region.
The Kimball detected a Chinese guided missile cruiser in the Bering Sea in September 2022. Chinese ships were also detected in the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea by Coast Guard vessels in September 2021. A nation with a coastline is granted the sovereign right to use natural resources inside its EEZ by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Chinese ships left the US EEZ after they were shadowed by the Kimball.
The US Navy conducts Freedom of Navigation Operations in waters close to China, which include the contested South China Sea. Russia and China carried out joint drills in the South China Sea in July to address security threats. In the same month, Japan and the Philippines signed a historic pact following increasing concerns about China’s plans in the region.
According to defense analyst Tom Shugart, Beijing’s FONOPs differ from Washington’s in that China restricts operations within its EEZ, unlike the US. He also noted that US FONOPs are carried out to oppose “excessive maritime claims” that contravene international laws.
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