YOKOSUKA, Japan (AP) — A U.S. Navy strike group’s flagship plane provider left its Japanese house port on Thursday, wrapping up almost 9 years of deployment within the Indo-Pacific, the place it served a key position within the U.S. effort to bolster protection ties with Japan and different companions within the area.

The departure of USS Ronald Reagan — one in all America’s largest warships and a nuclear-powered Nimitz-class plane provider — comes at a time of rising pressure within the face of more and more assertive China within the Indo-Pacific.

It is going to be changed later this yr by USS George Washington, one other Nimitz-class provider, now on project close to South America. Japan has been accelerating the buildup of its navy functionality and considerably elevated joint naval operations with the US.

Members of the family and mates of the crew had been available to wave the provider off from Yokosuka Naval Base after its remaining patrolling mission earlier within the day.

A whole lot of sailors stood alongside the rails whereas others on the flight deck stood forming the Japanese saying “dewa mata,” or “see you.” The provider was accompanied by two guided-missile destroyers, USS Robert Smalls and USS Howard. It’s scheduled to transit in Bremerton, Washington, later this yr, earlier than heading to a subsequent house port project.

Talking on the ceremony, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel ensured a “seamless transition.”

“The united statesRonald Reagan and her crew have ensured that thousands and thousands of individuals throughout the Indo-Pacific have been capable of reside their lives freed from coercion, aggression and suppression,” Emanuel later informed reporters.

USS Ronald Reagan first arrived in Yokosuka in 2015. Earlier, throughout its deployment close to the Korean Peninsula, the provider contributed in Operation Tomodachi, following the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophe in northeastern Japan.

USS Ronald Reagan was the one American plane provider deployed as a flagship of the Service Strike Group 5 beneath the U.S. Navy’s seventh Fleet, to a house port outdoors the U.S.

Throughout its tenure, it participated in dozens of multilateral workouts and visited greater than a dozen international ports, together with its historic port name to Da Nang, Vietnam, final yr.

Whereas tensions have escalated within the South China Sea between China and the Philippines and various different international locations over maritime and territorial disputes, Japan is worried about its dispute with China over uninhabited islands within the East China Sea.

Japanese and Chinese language coast guard ships repeatedly face off within the waters there.

Former Protection Minister Tomomi Inada, who not too long ago joined an environmental survey journey close to the disputed Senkaku islands, which Beijing calls the Diaoyu, mentioned Thursday that cooperation with the U.S. and different like-minded international locations is vital to defending the worldwide order.

“We’ve got a way of urgency that we should not let the East China Sea change into one other South China Sea,” she mentioned.

Touchdown on the islands will not be permitted, so Inada’s group flew drones for land and vegetation survey of the realm. China protested the journey.

Inada mentioned specialists ought to be capable to land on Japan’s territory for analysis, calling for a parliamentary debate.

___

Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo.

___

Observe AP’s Asia-Pacific protection at