In a series of U.S. military actions in response to China’s increasingly assertive claims over territory in the South China Sea, the United States has of late deployed a P-8 Poseidon spy plane in Singapore for the first time.
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China claims nearly the entire South China Sea, putting it in territorial dispute with several countries, including Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia, among others.
Last month, U.S. B-52 bombers flew near some of China’s artificial islands and at the end of October a US guided-missile destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of one of them despite continuous warnings to the crew from Chinese military to leave the area.
Besides the P-8 deployment, the U.S. says it will also operate a military plane – either a P-8 Poseidon or a P-3 Orion – from Singapore for the foreseeable future, rotating planes on a quarterly basis.
The P-8 Poseidon’s deployment deal was reached after U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter met Ng Eng Hen, his Singaporean counterpart, in Washington Monday.
USA surveillance flights already fly from Japan and the Philippines, while Malaysia has also offered its airbases for use.
“They will sign an enhanced defense cooperation agreement that will lay the framework for closer cooperation on a number of areas, including humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, countering piracy and transnational terrorism, and cyber defense”, said a Pentagon official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The plane’s deployment “would promote greater inter-operability with regional militaries through participation in bilateral and multilateral exercises”, the statement said.
A stronger US military presence does “not conform to the common and long-term interests among the regional countries”, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chuying told reporters at a daily briefing.
Carter and the defense minister commended the successful deployment of the USS Fort Worth, the second littoral combat ship to be rotationally stationed in Singapore. Beijing has promised not to pursue “militarization” of the area, but appears to be building a third airstrip on its man-made islands after constructing runways elsewhere that could accommodate military aircraft.
“It’s not about the South China Sea, it’s about partnership with Singapore and other partners in the region”, said Lt Commander Arlo Abrahamson, speaking to the BBC.
China is also adamantly opposed to US surveillance missions off its coastline, although the sides recently signed an agreement to avoid unexpected incidents that could lead to confrontations. Beijing has rejected the accusations against it and holds that the US has no right to comment on South China Sea territorial disputes.
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Last month, U.S. President Barack Obama called on countries to stop building artificial islands in the sea and militarizing their claims.
