China Sea deployment
SYDNEY: Britain plans to send a warship to the disputed South China Sea next year to conduct freedom of navigation exercises, Defence Minister Michael Fallon said yesterday, a move likely to anger Beijing.
Britain would increase its presence in the waters after it sent four British fighter planes for joint exercises with Japan in the region last year, Fallon said.
China claims most of the energyrich sea where neighbours Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.
‘‘We hope to send a warship to region next year. We have not finalised exactly where . . . but we won’t be constrained by China from sailing through the South China Sea,’’ Fallon told reporters.
The presence of a British vessel threatens to stoke tensions, escalated by China’s naval buildup and its increasingly assertive stance.
The comments by Fallon came after Britain’s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the country’s two new aircraft carriers would be sent to the region once operational in 2020.
Speaking in Beijing yesterday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said none of the recent comments ‘‘playing up’’ tension in the South China Sea were made by countries from the region, which were instead ‘‘working together to safeguard and promote regional peace and prosperity’’.