FREGATA INGLESE ENTRA IN ACQUE TERRITORIALI CINESI NEL MARE DEL SUD DELLA CINA

British Royal Navy's Type 45 destroyer HMS Defender arrives at the Black Sea port of Odessa, Ukraine June 18, 2021.

UK Warship Reportedly Enters South China Sea As Part of Carrier Strike Group Despite China's Warning

© REUTERS / SERGEY SMOLENTSEV
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In mid-July Britain’s carrier strike group led by HMS Queen Elizabeth entered the Indian Ocean for joint exercises with the Indian Navy while on route to the South China Sea for ‘freedom of navigation” operations, with Beijing warning London that it would take measures to "safeguard its sovereignty and security" in the contested area.

HMS Defender, a Royal Navy warship that tried to illegally sail through Russian territorial waters off Crimea in June, has reportedly entered the South China Sea, a region largely claimed by China, according to automatic identification system (AIS ) data cited by UK media.

​The Type 45 Destroyer is part of HMS Queen Elizabeth’s Carrier Strike Group CSG 21 that recently took part in Exercise Konkan.

​The latter involved the Royal Navy and Indian Navy vessels engaged in a number of maritime drills. Following the training exercise, the carrier strike group partially split, with some ships heading towards the disputed South China Sea, in defiance of Beijing’s earlier issued warnings.

The South China Sea, with significant hydrocarbon reserves, including the Paracel and Spratly Islands, have long been a source of tension for China and its neighbours amid a dispute over the waters' maritime borders. China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei all have competing claims.

Beijing claims almost all of the 1.3 million-square-mile South China Sea as its sovereign territory.

Last month, Foreign secretary Dominic Raab warned Beijing that the UK flotilla, spearheaded by the brand new HMS Queen Elizabeth - described as the "flagship" of the British navy - would be entering the South China Sea.

“It's absolutely right we exercise and defend the rights, and we do so from the Ukrainian territorial sea to the South China Sea,” Raab told the Commons foreign affairs committee.

The strike group of Royal Navy ships will pay visits to five Japanese ports in September, officials said during a visit by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace to Tokyo. As he touted the strike group's Indo-Pacific mission in late April, Defence Secretary Wallace stressed that it "will be flying the flag for Global Britain”.

His remarks followed the country's new foreign policy review, presented by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to British lawmakers in late March. The report designated the Indo-Pacific region as "increasingly [becoming] the geopolitical centre of the world".

Britain’s ‘Muscle-Flexing’

In response to reports that Britain’s newest aircraft carrier would be deployed to the Pacific region, including the contentious sea, for its first operational mission, Chinese defence spokesman Tan Kefei was quoted in the South China Morning Post in early January as saying:

“The Chinese side believes that the South China Sea should not become a sea of great power rivalry dominated by weapons and warships. The real source of militarisation in the South China Sea comes from countries outside this region sending their warships thousands of kilometres from home to flex muscles. The Chinese military will take necessary measures to safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interest as well as peace and stability in the South China Sea.”

So far there has not been any official statement from China in regard to the reported presence of UK warships in the contested waters.

UK Warship Incident

HMS Defender was involved in a tense incident in late June as the destroyer broke off from the British battle group in the Mediterranean and enter the Black Sea where it triggered Russia's anger by breaching territorial waters off the Crimean Peninsula.

The violation prompted Russian forces to fire warning shots and scramble Su-24M fighters to drop bombs in the path of the destroyer after it ignored other warnings telling it to leave.

Moscow blasted the incident as a deliberate provocation, while London initially offered a series of contradictory explanations on what had transpired.

The UK Defence Ministry denied that Russia fired any warning shots, while a BBC journalist onboard the ship confirmed that they took place, while the British Embassy in Moscow maintained that the vessel was just carrying out “innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters.” However, a video published by the Russian security service showed the ship ignoring warnings only exiting Russia's waters after the shots were fired.

Meanwhile, sensitive British Ministry of Defence documents, dated 21 June and offering an analysis of the potential consequences of the warship's passage, were found by a member of the public at a bus stop in Kent last month. Cited by the BBC, the papers suggested the provocative incident was deliberately designed to get Moscow's reaction.

Related:

US Reaffirms Stance on South China Sea Issue, Claims Beijing Should Stop 'Provocative Behavior'

Beijing Accuses London of 'Flexing Muscles at China' Amid UK Plans to Send Warships to Indo-Pacific

US Media Calls Britain ‘Most Formidable Naval Power’ in Europe for ‘Deterring’ Russia and China

Chinese Military Says US Warship Illegally Entered Waters Near Parcel Islands in South China Sea
Tags:
Boris Johnson, Ben Wallace, South China Sea, South China Sea Dispute, South China Sea, China
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  • Reply
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    GRSin reply toUSSuxRuskyNuts(Show comment)
    USSuxRuskyNuts, umm Iran is completely isolated and it’s economy is failed almost completely like Russia’s lol! Our sanctions are awesome!!
  • Reply
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    Thrillbillin reply toUSSuxRuskyNuts(Show comment)
    USSuxRuskyNuts, how is Soleimani feeling today. I think you have it backwards.
  • Reply
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    Thrillbillin reply toUSSuxRuskyNuts(Show comment)
    USSuxRuskyNuts, china has no balls just like Russia. Warnings only work on children. You're playing with the big dogs now.
  • Reply
    NoGoin reply toGRS(Show comment)
    GRS, Is that last news from CNN, then is opposite
  • Reply
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    PoorRussia
    Lets hear the cry babies...wha.wha.wha...lol
  • Reply
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    Thrillbillin reply toNthrnNYker59(Show comment)
    NthrnNYker59, you simply can't handle the truth. So you reply to truth with childish insults. It's a good thing you work for a day care as a nanny instead of as a military officer.
  • Reply
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    Thrillbillin reply toTruePatriot(Show comment)
    Hmmm seems to me Russia was the one embarrassed after HMS entered waters Russia claims. Further embarrassed by being caught in a lie saying they were dropping bombs in the path of HMS from the air. They gave up on that lie. They always give up.
  • Reply
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    Thrillbillin reply toSteve(Show comment)
    Steve, it seems that you're the one dreaming. Russia has more vessels at the ocean floor than all other countries combined. Wake up
  • Reply
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    far.bot
    seize them
  • Reply
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    Thrillbillin reply toNoGo(Show comment)
    NoGo, Well even Sputnik reports that Iran can't even give its citizens water. Does living without water sounds like a place that has things under control? Would you like to visit your ally for a vacation?
  • Reply
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    far.botin reply toThrillbill(Show comment)
    ThrillbillThrillbill, fake propaganda iran delivers its citizens water the whole water issue is about agriculture industry having been cut off in a single province just keep your nonsense for yourselves it didnt serve you the 4 decades to lie and blabber nonsense because this kind of behavior simply is easily ignored by the realities on the ground all your big balloons are bursting almost as soon as you blow them up
  • Reply
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    Thrillbill
    So you are saying Russian news is fake propaganda against their only ally in the world?
  • Reply
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    far.botin reply toThrillbill(Show comment)
    Thrillbill, russia has no allies out of the non slavic world and certainly sputnik isnt pro iran but that doesnt change the realities still the protests are about agriculture and you talk alot of nonsense
  • Reply
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    far.botin reply toThrillbill(Show comment)
    Thrillbill, the real issue is that you cant do much with a few 100s or maybe a 1000 of angry people and a dozens of sleeper cells plotting it simply doesnt work and this showed to be the case for a long time it backfires every single time and iran hits the ones who plotted which creates tons of whining by them
  • Reply
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    GRSin reply toThrillbill(Show comment)
    Thrillbill, hahahaha soleimani!!! That’s awesome!
  • Reply
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    far.botin reply toThrillbill(Show comment)
    Thrillbill, iran will now down zionist satellites and hit haifa and tel aviv so if not also uae so this was stupid on their part fact is that the zionists wouldnt use this soft pathetic kind of attack against iran if they had real power but iran will kick them around with hard power soon enough and destroy their greatest strengths in single hits
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    far.botin reply toThrillbill(Show comment)
    Thrillbill, yes you remember the name of our martyr general but do you know the names of all the mossad creatures we slaughtered over the years like the ugly pigs they are no because they are nobodies just like all of these mossad scum are going to be dead nobodies and their deaths will not be remembered their names are not important
  • Reply
    Sy.Gunson.NZ
    hms Colander's crew must feel like little duckie targets in a fairground shooting stall
  • Reply
    Sy.Gunson.NZin reply toThrillbill(Show comment)
    Thrillbill, Actually he was pretty funny
  • Reply
    Sy.Gunson.NZin reply toGRS(Show comment)
    GRS, news for you the world has been weaned off the US dollar by sanctions and soon USA wont be able to trade with anyone. In your lifetime USA will be reduced to a museum attraction

at
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