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| US B-52 (Image: Wiki Commons) |
By Ankit Panda
Two U.S. bombers were contacted by Chinese air traffic controllers over the South China Sea, but details are murky.
On Thursday, U.S. officials confirmed that two U.S. B-52 Stratofortress long-range strategic bombers were contacted by Chinese air traffic controllers earlier this week while flying over the South China Sea, near disputed islands. Reuters reports that the U.S. bombers continued undeterred.
The report comes at a time of heightened tensions between the United States and China after the U.S. Navy carried out a freedom of navigation patrol near a Chinese man-made island. The B-52s were reportedly “in the area” of the Spratly Islands and there are conflicting reports regarding whether their passage took them within 12 nautical miles of Chinese outposts in the Spratlys.
Statements from Commander Bill Urban, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Defense, suggest that the mission was a routine transit flight. ”The B-52s were on a routine mission in the [South China Sea],” he said. ”We conduct B-52 flights in international air space in that part of the world all the time,” Peter Cook, another Pentagon spokesman, told Reuters.
According to Reuters, Urban confirmed that the B-52 bombers did not enter the 12 nautical mile zone around any Spratly features occupied by Chinese. The United States does not take a position on the sovereignty of features in the South China Sea, but under international law, some of these features may be entitled to a 12 nautical mile territorial sea and airspace.
Read the full story at The Diplomat