The United States Navy has the Ronald Reagan Aircraft Carrier Battle Group and the USS Tripoli amphibious ship operating near Taiwan, coinciding with the visit of the President of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.
A spokeswoman for the US Pacific Fleet told Efe that the combat group is currently carrying out “routine operations in the South China Sea and the Philippine Sea.”
This group includes the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, the destroyer USS Higgins and the guided missile cruisers USS Antietam and USS Chancellorsville, the source said, emphasizing that it is “on a summer patrol deployment.”
The spokeswoman added that there is another vessel outside that group of the US Navy, the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli, which carries out “routine operations” in the Philippine Sea.
According to the latest update of USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker, which is published by the independent military association US Naval Institute, another US ship, USS America, may be on its way to waters near Taiwan, but still is located in the port of Sasebo in Japan.
Pelosi arrived on the island on Tuesday in the first visit of a president of the US House of Representatives to Taiwan since 1997, when Republican Newt Gingrich did.
The White House has assured that “there is no violation or problem of sovereignty ” with this visit and that the US does not support Taiwan independence nor has it changed its policy.
China warned Taiwan that it faces “consequences of disastrous” if “the United States mismanages the situation in the strait”. , reported the official newspaper Global Times.
The Defense portfolio explained on Tuesday that these operations are aimed at “decidedly defending the national sovereignty and territorial integrity” of China.
For its part, the Eastern Theater of Operations of the People’s Liberation Army (Chinese Army), quoted by the same newspaper, notified the organization of both maritime and air military maneuvers in the north, southwest and southeast of Taiwan that will begin this Tuesday night.
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