US asks China to explain why it needs aircraft carrier
US: The United States said Wednesday it would like China to
explain why it needs an aircraft carrier amid broader US concerns about
Beijing’s lack of transparency over its military aims.
“We would welcome any kind of explanation that China would like to
give for needing this kind of equipment,” State Department spokeswoman
Victoria Nuland told reporters when asked whether the carrier would
raise regional tensions.
“This is part of our larger concern that China is not as transparent
as other countries. It’s not as transparent as the United States about
its military acquisitions, about its military budget,” she said.
“And we’d like to have the kind of open, transparent relationship in
military-to-military affairs,” Nuland said.
“In our military-to-military relations with many countries around the
world, we have the kind of bilateral dialogue where we can get quite
specific about the equipment that we have and its intended purposes and
its intended movements,” she said.
But China and the United States are “not at that level of
transparency” to which the two nations aspire, Nuland added.
The comments came hours after China’s first aircraft carrier embarked
on its inaugural sea trial, a move likely to stoke concerns about the
nation’s military expansion and growing territorial assertiveness.
Beijing only recently confirmed it was revamping an old Soviet ship
to be its first carrier and has sought to play down the vessel’s
capability, saying it will mainly be used for training and “research.”
AFP |