US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and his Malaysian counterpart will cruise on the USS Theodore Roosevelt today, a US defense official said, for a voyage likely to highlight tension over rival claims in the South China Sea. There was no information about where the US warship would sail but it has been on patrol in the South China Sea where territorial disputes between China and several of its neighbors have raised fears of conflict. Carter and the Malyasian minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, have been attending a regional defense ministers' meeting in Malaysia, along with the Chinese defense chief, where differences over the South China Sea surfaced.

US defense chief to cruise near disputed areas. (2015, November 5). The Philippine star, p. 4.