Washington:
The United States has agreed with Singapore on a first deployment of the U.S. P-8 Poseidon spy plane in Singapore this month in a maritime security role, a joint statement said on Monday.
The statement issued after a meeting between U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Singapore's defence minister, Ng Eng Hen, said both welcomed the inaugural deployment of the aircraft in Singapore from Dec. 7 to 14.
A U.S. defence official said further deployments in Singapore could be expected. The move comes at a time of heightened tensions in the South China Sea over China's assertive pursuit of territorial claims there.
© Thomson Reuters 2015