Скачать или смотреть China joins U.S. in navy exercises amid rising tensions

Warships from a record 26 nations — including the United States and China — converge near Hawaii this week for a five-week series of exercises to promote international security, goodwill and cooperation on the high seas.

The massive Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) war games will take place amid increasing tension and competition in waters of the Asia-Pacific region and will include warships from at least seven nations with competing claims or interests in the region.

China will take part in the RIMPAC exercise, held every two years, for just the second time.

Some see the move in what U.S. defense officials call RimPac 2016 as a long-awaited olive branch by Beijing to the U.S. and its regional allies, and others fear it is a calculated gesture to further reinforce aggressively sought gains in the South China Sea and elsewhere in the Pacific.

Adding to the political overtones of China’s participation will be a July 12 ruling, right in the middle of the exercises, by an international tribunal on a closely watched Philippine complaint about Beijing’s broad claims of sovereignty in the South China Sea, one of the world’s most strategic waterways.