US disinvites China from RIMPAC exercise over South China Sea

United States has withdrawn its invitation to China to participate in the biennial maritime exercise in the Pacific because of Beijing's continued militarisation of the South China Sea.

The biennial exercise called, Rim of the Pacific or RIMPAC is organised by the US Navy in which personnel from more than two dozen countries train together and work on seamanship across the vast region.

Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Logan said last night that they have disinvited the People's Liberation Army Navy of China from the 2018 RIMPAC Exercise. He said China's behaviour is inconsistent with the principles and purposes of the exercise. 

He also said the Pentagon has strong evidence that China has deployed anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missile systems and electronic jammers to "contested features" in the Spratly Islands region of the



South China Sea.

China has criticised the US move and termed it as very unconstructive and expressed hope that the Pentagon would change such a 'negative mindset'. 

Talking to reporters at a joint news conference with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington, Chinese Foreign Minister and Councilor Wang said that the decision is unhelpful to mutual understanding between the two countries. On the militarisation in the South China Sea, Wang said, China is only building civilian and some necessary defense facilities on its own islands. 

RIMPAC began in 1971 and was held annually until 1974, when it switched to every two years due to its large scale. The founding nations are the United States, Australia and Canada. China has previously participated twice, in 2014 and 2016.