Asian nations call for freedom of air, seas as U.S.-China maritime near-collision revealed

Via Elaine Lies and David Alexander TOKYO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Japan and Southeast Asian nations known as for freedom of the air and sea on Saturday, as China’s armed forces assertiveness raises regional tensions and after U.S. and Chinese language warships narrowly refrained from collision in the disputed South China Sea. China’s contemporary announcement of an air security zone overlaying disputed islands in the East China Sea and its territorial claims in the South China Sea have raised considerations that a minor incident within the disputed seas could quickly improve. The near-leave out between a U.S. guided missile cruiser, USS Cowpens, and a Chinese language warship running near China’s most effective aircraft provider, the Liaoning, remaining week was once essentially the most vital U.S.-China maritime incident within the South China Sea considering 2009, mentioned security expert Carl Thayer at the Australian Protection Power Academy.