Maritime Geostrategy: China, Iran, the US, and NATO

China has deployed a carrier group to the western Pacific for the second time in a month. The group, led by the 70,000-ton Shandong, the first aircraft carrier built in China, and the second in service with the Chinese navy, also included two Chinese destroyers and a frigate. The Japanese reported that the Shandong operated with carrier-based fighter jets and helicopters. At the same time, the Pentagon ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln to expedite its transit from the western Pacific to the Middle East.

The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf and a major shipping route that carries almost 30% of the world’s oil trade, is once again under tension due to conflicts between Iran and Israel. Iran has a history of attacking merchant ships in the Strait of Hormuz and threatening to block transit. While Tehran did not specifically threaten the movement through Hormuz this time, it has supported Houthi rebels in Yemen, who have been attacking ships near the southern entrance to the Red Sea.

In July, at least five NATO members sent naval and air assets to track two Chinese ships moving between the Horn of Africa and Russia. Photos released by the British confirmed that they, along with Belgium and France, were monitoring the Chinese destroyer Jiaozuo and the supply ship Honghu as they sailed from the Gulf of Aden across the Atlantic toward the Baltic Sea on the route to St. Petersburg.