The carrier group was spotted around 8 a.m. Saturday roughly 470 km southwest of Nagasaki Prefecture’s Danjo Islands, the joint staff said. The convoy then passed through the Miyako Strait, the 250 km-wide waterway between Okinawa Island and Miyako Island, Nikkei Asia reported.

This is the first time since April 2020 that the Liaoning has been known to pass this waterway, and it comes just days after exercises between the US and Australian navies in the Eastern Pacific.

Accompanying the Liaoning were one Renhai class stealth guided-missile destroyer, two Luyang III class guided-missile destroyers, one Jiangkai II multi-role frigate, and one Fuyu class fast combat support ship.

The Japanese side deployed destroyer JS Suzutsuki, a P-1 maritime patrol aircraft, and a P-3C anti-submarine warfare patrol aircraft to gather information and monitor the movements of the Chinese vessels, the joint staff said.

The joint staff also said that a Chinese Y-9 military transport aircraft passed over the Miyako Strait on Sunday and that Japan had scrambled a jet fighter in the airspace to respond.

The movements come as the US Navy intensifies cooperation with the Quad partners of Japan, India, and Australia in the Indo-Pacific.

On the heels of a visit to India by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group conducted joint multi-domain operations with India’s navy and air force in the Indian Ocean on March 28 and 29.

The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill and destroyer USS Russell operated with Indian frigate INS Shivalik and Indian Air Force aircraft from Squadron No. 222, known as “The Tigersharks.”

The USS Blue Ridge, the flagship of the US 7th Fleet, operated with Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer JS Kongo on March 29 to test their combined maritime skills and intercommunication capabilities.

“Unique to this exercise was the participation of aircraft embarked aboard Blue Ridge, assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 12, which flew in formation with the ships and transferred [Blue Ridge commanding officer] Capt. [Tim] Waits from Blue Ridge to Kongo during maneuvers to engage with leadership and visit the ship’s crew,” the US Navy said.

The exercises were immediately followed by a two-day joint drill involving the US Navy and Royal Australian Navy in the Eastern Pacific.

Guided-missile destroyer USS John Finn and Australian Hobart-class air warfare destroyer HMAS Sydney took part in a Group Sail exercise in the waters off the coast of Southern California on Wednesday and Thursday to improve interoperability.