SINGAPORE — While China has been strengthening its maritime capabilities in recent years, the rise of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (Plan) should not be a cause of concern for the United States, a top US military officer said yesterday, adding that there has been no change to America’s freedom of navigation policy in the South China Sea .

“The US has interests internationally — that’s why we have an international navy to look after them,” Admiral Scott Swift, commander of the US Pacific Fleet told reporters.

“China has a global economy and it therefore needs a global navy to protect its economic interests,” he added.

“If they think that they need carriers to support their maritime strategy, then I am not concerned about it.”

Adm Swift was responding to a question on whether recent Chinese advances on the naval arena should worry the US.

Last month, the Plan launched its first indigenously-built aircraft carrier — the Type 001A — and plans are afoot to expand the Chinese carrier fleet both qualitatively and quantitatively going forward.

In recent years, Beijing has also invested heavily in destroyers, amphibious-warfare ships and submarines in a build-up that defence analysts say could upset the military balance of power in the region.

Adm Swift, who is in Singapore as part of a regional trip to hold talks with defence officials, also noted that America has many things in common with China, adding that the two nations can collaborate to tackle transnational issues such as the piracy off the east coast of Africa.

“We have regular and cordial exchanges with the Plan at sea. China also participated in the past two editions of the Rim of the Pacific naval drills, which are the largest of its kind in the world and which involve the American and many other navies,” Adm Swift said.

When asked to comment on a New York Times report on how Washington has not carried out freedom of navigation operations (Fonops) in the South China Sea under the Trump presidency in an ostensible show of deference towards Beijing, Adm Swift said there “isn’t anything untrue about the article”.

But he stressed that the recent hiatus in Fonops in the South China Sea under the Donald Trump administration does not signal that the contested body of water is now less of a priority for Washington.

“There is nothing that has significantly changed in the last two or three months,” he said.

“I am not surprised that process has continued in a dialogue as the new administration gets its feet on the ground and determines where would be appropriate to take advantage of opportunities and where we may want to wait.”

“I’m a not part of this dialogue, which is carried out at a higher level of government. We just present the opportunities when we have a ship in the area and there is an area of interest,” Adm Swift said, adding that the navy will still propose such operations.

The US has not conducted any Fonops in the South China Sea since Mr Trump became President, a Pentagon official said. Such operations — where ships sail near features claimed by China and others to challenge their assertions to exclusive access — have typically produced protests from Beijing.

The US is not a claimant in the South China Sea, and the Pentagon said previously that Washington remains committed to “non-militarisation in the South China Sea” and urges all claimants to take actions consistent with international law. WITH AGENCIES