China will for the first time join the US navy-sponsored Rim of the Pacific Exercise, or RIMPAC, which will run from June 26 to August 1. But no drills are being planned in which Japanese and Chinese maritime forces will both take part, the Kyodo News Agency reported.

Admiral Katsutoshi Kawano, chief of staff of Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, welcomed China's first-ever participation in RIMPAC, which is a multinational framework.

Japan will dispatch two destroyers and three surveillance aircraft to biennial US-led multinational naval exercises off Hawaii also involving about 740 of its personnel.