• The US Navy once more has two provider strike teams conducting twin provider functions in the South China Sea.
• For the second time in two weeks, the Nimitz and Ronald Reagan carrier strike groups are instruction with each other in the strategic waterway.
• The workouts, which the Navy suggests are unrelated to current activities, appear throughout a week in which the US and China have traded barbs more than the South China Sea.
• Check out Enterprise Insider’s homepage for much more stories.

For the next time in two weeks, the US Navy has two carrier strike groups conducting dual carrier operations in the South China Sea, a waterway above which the US and China have been investing jabs recently.

Over Fourth of July weekend, two Navy provider strike teams led by the USS Nimitz and the USS Ronald Reagan qualified jointly in the South China Sea. The final time the Navy experienced two carriers functioning together in the South China Sea was nearly six a long time in the past.

The Nimitz and Ronald Reagan carrier strike teams have linked up once more to proceed their higher-close twin carrier operations, the Navy claimed Friday.

“Nimitz and Reagan Carrier Strike Teams are operating in the South China Sea, where ever global law makes it possible for, to boost our commitment to a Free of charge and Open up Indo-Pacific, a principles based global get, and to our allies and associates in the region,” Nimitz Carrier Strike Group Commander Rear Adm. Jim Kirk mentioned in a assertion.

The Navy famous that the provider functions are unrelated to latest gatherings, but the provider functions do notably arrive at a time of heightened tensions with China.

China’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs accused the US earlier this thirty day period of flexing its muscle tissues to “undermine the peace and balance in the South China Sea.” This week, the Overseas Ministry criticized the US for sending “large fleets of innovative military services vessels and aircraft to the South China Sea to flex muscle tissues and stir up troubles.”

On Tuesday, USS Ralph Johnson, a person of the destroyers sailing with the Nimitz provider strike group, performed a independence-of-navigation operation in the contested Spratly Islands, tough selected navigation limits by China and other claimant states.

Prior to the Navy liberty-of-navigation procedure, at minimum the sixth this yr, Secretary of Point out Mike Pompeo issued a assertion Monday announcing the US is aligning its South China Sea coverage with a 2016 worldwide arbitration tribunal ruling and formally rejecting a lot of of China’s claims to the contested waterway.

“Beijing’s promises to offshore means across most of the South China Sea are absolutely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to manage them,” he explained. “The PRC’s predatory earth look at has no place in the 21st century.”

China’s Ministry of International Affairs known as the US statement on the South China Sea “irresponsible.”

“It violates and distorts worldwide legislation, deliberately stokes territorial and maritime disputes, and undermines regional peace and steadiness,” Ministry of Overseas Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian said Tuesday.

The South China Sea, long a warm spot, has all over again turn into a flash point in new months as the US has stepped up its army functions in response to “opportunistic action by the PRC” to just take edge of the COVID-19 disaster and “coerce its neighbors and press its unlawful maritime promises in the South China Sea,” the Pentagon mentioned earlier.

The world-wide coronavirus crisis that began in China but has considering the fact that unfold throughout the US owing to domestic mishandling has brought on a improve in US-China tensions, resulting in troubles throughout the bilateral connection.