UpdateUS, China to hold talks on American warship’s patrol in disputed area of South China Sea
China will express its 'solemn position' during Thursday's teleconference with the US after the USS Lassen challenged Beijing’s territorial assertiveness in the disputed waterway on Tuesday
The US chief of naval operations and his Chinese counterpart will hold an hour-long video teleconference on Thursday, days after Beijing was angered by an American warship’s patrol within a 12-nautical-mile (22km) limit around a man-made Chinese island in the South China Sea, a US official said.
China would express its “solemn position” during the teleconference after the warship challenged Beijing’s territorial assertiveness in the disputed waterway on Tuesday, the Defence Ministry's spokesman Yang Yujun said at a briefing on Thursday
US chief of naval operations Admiral John Richardson and his Chinese counterpart Admiral Wu Shengli, who both inititated the meeting, would take part in the video teleconference, which would discuss recent operations in the South China Sea and also naval ties between the two countries, the US official said.
It will be the third video teleconference held between a US naval operations chief and his Chinese equivalent.
The USS Lassen’s patrol on Tuesday was the most significant US challenge yet to 12-nautical-mile territorial limits China claims around artificial islands it has built in the Spratly archipelago.