US Military Attache Summoned after Russian Navy ‘Intercepts’ US Warship

After the Russian Pacific Fleet’s large anti-submarine warfare ship has thwarted on Friday an US guided missile destroyer’s attempt by to violate Russia’s state border and territorial waters in the Sea of Japan, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that they’ve summoned the US military attache to explain the “unprofessional” incident, Russian media report.

According to the statement issued by the ministry, the US Armed Forces’ representative was informed of the position of the Russian military in connection to the US Navy destroyer Chafee’s attempt to violate Russia’s state border in the Peter the Great Bay area.

The statement points that the US Pacific Fleet’s Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, which has been operating in the Sea of Japan for several days, attempted to cross into the Russian waters, but was forced off-course by the Russian Navy’s warfare ship Admiral Tributs.

The Russian anti-submarine vessel informed the US warship that it’s operating in an area closed for shipping due the Russia-China Joint Sea 2021 naval maneuvers that included artillery firings, and warned it of the inadmissibility of such actions.

Since the US destroyer Chafee didn’t change its course to leave the closed area after getting the warning and took actions to violate Russia’s state border, the Admiral Tributs set its course towards chasing the intruder out of Russian territorial waters in line with the international rules of the sea.

The US warship only changed its course after becoming convinced of the Admiral Tributs’s resolve to prevent the violation of the state border since the large anti-submarine warfare ship came to less than 60 meters from it.

The US attache was informed that the American sailors grossly violated the rules for preventing collisions at sea and the Russian-American agreement’s provisions on the prevention of incidents on the high seas with its unprofessional actions.

The US Pacific Fleet denied in a statement the Russian assertions about the alleged interaction between the two Navy ships, noting that USS Chafee was in international water in the Sea of Japan conducting routine operations when the Russian Udaloy-class destroyer approached it to approximately 65 yards.

The statement also pointed that the interaction between the two warships was safe and professional and that USS Chafee conducted operations in accordance with international law and custom.

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