News / China

US Navy guided-missile destroyer docks at Chinese port

Monday, 08 August 2016 7:09 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 08 August 2016 7:16 AM ]

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold (DDG 65), right, and the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG 54) participate in an exercise in March 2016. (Photo by US Navy)

A US Navy guided-missile destroyer has arrived in a Chinese port, the first visit by an American warship to China since an international tribunal ruling over South China Sea escalated tensions in the region.

USS Benfold docked at Qingdao, the home port of China's northern fleet, on Monday and its commander Justin L. Harts said the visit aimed to "build relationships" with counterparts from the Chinese Navy.

US Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Scott Swift is scheduled to meet the media in Qingdao on Tuesday.

Tensions have increased in the region after a Hague-based court of arbitration on July 12 ruled that China’s claims to sovereignty over the disputed areas in the South China Sea or its resources “had no legal basis.”

Beijing has rejected the ruling in the case, which was brought by the Philippines. China claims nearly all of the strategically vital South China Sea which is also claimed in part by Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines.

The dispute has at times drawn in trans-regional countries, particularly the US.

China accuses the US of interfering in the regional issues and deliberately stirring up tensions in the South China Sea.

Washington, in turn, accuses Beijing of carrying out what it calls a land reclamation program in the South China Sea by building artificial islands in the disputed areas.

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