Washington DC, Sep 2: The United States and ASEAN are expected to launch their joint maritime exercises on Monday as efforts to extend drills into main strategic South China Sea.
Four warplanes, eight warships, and over a thousand personnel from ten Southeast Asian nations and the US are slated to join the maritime exercises slated to begin on Monday, according to Al-Jazeera news reports.
The first-ever Asean-US Maritime Exercise (AUMX) between Washington and the regional bloc will last for five days, kicking off at Thailand Sattahip Naval base and concluding in Singapore.
The exercises come at times when the US stepped up engagements in the area, as well as, tensed friction between Southeast Asian countries and Beijing over the disputed South China Sea – parts of which are rightfully claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei.
Co-headed by Royal Thai navies and America, the drills will extend into “international waters in Southeast Asia, including the Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea” before ending in Singapore, as per an official statement issued by the US embassy in Thailand.
“AUMX builds greater maritime security on the strength of ASEAN, the strength of our navy-to-navy bonds, and the strength of our shared belief in a free and open Indo-Pacific,” said Rear Admiral Joey Tynch, tasked with overseeing the US Navy’s security cooperation in Southeast Asia.
The ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations are expected to participate in the joint drills, prompting Pentagon last week to blame China for efforts to “violate the rules-based international order throughout the Indo-Pacific”.