WASHINGTON — A U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarine that was broken in a collision with an unknown underwater object within the South China Sea final weekend has arrived in port at Guam, the Navy stated Friday.
No additional particulars concerning the circumstances of the collision or the extent of injury to the USS Connecticut have been accessible, however China's Foreign Ministry expressed “serious concern” about what occurred.
“As the occasion concerned, the U.S. ought to make clear intimately the scenario of the accident, together with the situation, the intention of the crusing, particulars of the accident, similar to what precisely it collided with, whether or not it brought on a nuclear leak, and whether or not it broken the native marine setting," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian advised reporters Friday.
When it disclosed the Oct. 2 accident on Thursday, U.S. Pacific Fleet stated that there had been no harm to the sub's nuclear propulsion system and that it had not but decided what underwater object had been struck. It didn't say the place the collision occurred, however different officers stated it was within the South China Sea.
China claims whole sovereignty over the South China Sea, a stance that isn't accepted by the United States and its allies. China protests the presence of the U.S. Navy within the space. The South China Sea is amongst many factors of rising competition between Washington and Beijing, together with the standing of Taiwan, the island that China claims as its personal.
The U.S. sub's underwater collision within the South China Sea was uncommon, and the Navy stated it's beneath investigation. About 11 crew members sustained accidents that the Navy stated ranged from reasonable to minor, together with scrapes and bruises.
The Connecticut, based mostly at Bremerton, Washington, is considered one of three Seawolf-class assault submarines within the Navy fleet. Those subs have been designed throughout the Cold War, with the navy of the previous Soviet Union in thoughts, to enhance the U.S.'s potential to assault submarines and floor ships. Each is operated with a crew of about 140.
Zhao, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, stated the accident uncovered the “serious threat and significant risk to regional peace and stability” posed by U.S. naval operations within the South China Sea geared toward difficult China’s declare to nearly your complete strategic waterway. He additionally accused the United States of delaying the discharge of details about the collision, and he reiterated China’s objections to a deal introduced final month to supply Australia with nuclear-powered submarines in what Beijing sees as a part of a marketing campaign to counter its rising navy and financial energy in Asia.
“The U.S. side should abandon its old cold war and zero-sum thinking and narrow geopolitical concepts and stop this wrong approach that undermines the peaceful and stable development of the region,” Zhao stated.
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