Tokyo - Japan has carried out its first submarine drill in the South China Sea, local media said on yesterday, a move that could provoke Beijing which claims most of the disputed waters. China claims most of the resource-rich South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in shipping trade passes annually, despite competing claims from Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. The newspaper said the one-day submarine exercises were Tokyo's first in the South China Sea. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang declined to confirm the drill, but said that "the situation in the South China Sea is improving." China has engaged in years of land-reclamation work on reefs it controls in the South China Sea and has built both civilian and military facilities on them.

Source: Philippine Star September 17, 2018 18:00 UTC