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- The United States and ASEAN Countries will be jointly conducting ASEAN-US Maritime Exercise(AUMX) in the South China Sea.
- The Maritime Exercise will lasts for five days starting at the Sattahip Naval Base in Thailand and ending in Singapore.
- In this exercise,all the members of the Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) nations will take part which will include activities such as drilling, boarding of target vessels to simulate search and seizure.
- The exercise comes after a Chinese survey vessel had extended its activities to an area closer to Vietnam’s coastline.In response,the United States has also ramped up its military moves in the South China Sea.
- South China Sea is a portion of the Pacific ocean which is bordered by some of the ASEAN countries and China.The dispute involves contesting claims in the region by 7 countries which are Brunei, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
- The genesis of the dispute lies in the eleven-dashed line announced by the Chinese government in 1947 which was later changed to “Nine-dash line” in 1949 by Communist China.
- This line covers most of the South China Sea, which China claims to be a part of its territory.However,these claims are contested by other littoral states in the region.