Hawaii is getting a rare visit by French warplanes Sunday as part of an increasing demonstration of international military presence in the region in support of the U.S. “free and open Indo-Pacific” strategy and as concerns rise over China’s challenge to it.

In addition to the French warplanes coming to the Pacific, the new 65,000-ton aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth — the jewel of Britain’s Royal Navy — departed last month for a world mission that will include stops in 40 nations — as well as an announced passage through the South China Sea that has already irked China.

The deployment is billed as the “most important peacetime deployment in a generation” for the United Kingdom.

Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, commander of Pacific Air Forces on Oahu, said earlier this month that “we do have some plans to work with the Queen Elizabeth,” adding that “we’re going to do some flying with them as they come out.”

British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said on April 26 that “even as the Pacific’s importance to our future economy continues to rise — so the challenges to the freedom of navigation in that region continue to grow.”

“Our trade with Asia depends on the shipping that sails through a range of Indo-Pacific choke points, yet they are increasingly at risk,” Wallace said in a veiled reference to China.

Sixty percent of global maritime trade transits through Asia, with roughly one-third of global shipping passing through the South China Sea alone. The Indo-Pacific region is the single most consequential region for America’s future, the U.S. State Department said in 2019.

China’s unilateral claims to much of the South China Sea and its “more assertive policy in the area have clearly raised the concerns of maritime nations which view the South China Sea as a globally strategic zone and wish to lend strategic and geopolitical support” to the United States, Aristyo Rizka Darmawan, a lecturer in international law at the University of Indonesia, said in AsiaGlobal Online on June 10.

Besides U.S. “freedom of navigation operations,” countries such as Japan, Australia, Canada and India have sent ships to military exercises in the Pacific, and far-flung nations including France, Germany and the Netherlands have advanced Indo-Pacific strategies, Darmawan said.

“Even the British are coming,” he noted in the opinion piece on the “internationalization” of the South China Sea.

The French are deploying 170 Air and Space Force personnel, three Rafale fighters — marking a first visit to Hawaii — two A330 Phenix refueling tankers and two A400M Atlas transports to Joint Base Pearl Harbor- Hickam for training with local F-22 fighters, C-17 cargo aircraft and KC-135 refuelers. U.S. and French maintenance personnel will work together on the ground.

The French contingent will arrive in Hawaii Sunday and depart for Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada on July 5 for more cooperative training, Hickam’s 15th Wing said.

Wilsbach said in a June 4 media briefing moderated by the U.S. State Department that it’s “going to be an excellent exercise, just a training opportunity for some fighter pilots to get together, but also the statement that it says about France in the Indo-Pacific region and their desire, just like ours, to have a free and open Indo-Pacific, is really important.”

The French also have a significant presence in the Indo-Pacific, “so partnering with the United States in Hawaii allows both nations to reinforce our interoperability,” Pacific Air Forces said in an email.

“It is imperative that the U.S. accelerates change in synchronization with allies like France to ensure we are ready for the next fight,” the 15th Wing said.

The State Department said the United States, which has maintained what it calls the “international rules-based order” in the Pacific since the end of World War II, is “committed to upholding a free and open Indo-Pacific in which all nations, large and small, are secure in their sovereignty and able to pursue economic growth consistent with international law and principles of fair competition.”

“Make no mistake, the Communist Party of China seeks to supplant the idea of a free and open international order with a new order — one with Chinese characteristics — where Chinese national power is more important than international law,” Adm. Phil Davidson said on April 30 when he stepped down as commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command on Oahu.

Strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific “is not between two nations, it is a contest between liberty — the fundamental idea behind a free and open Indo-Pacific — and authoritarianism, the absence of liberty,” Davidson said.

At a May 27 China Ministry of National Defense press conference, Senior Col. Tan Kefei said America keeps “stepping up military deployments in the Asian Pacific region, frequently conduct close-in reconnaissance against China, and even deliberately initiate dangerous circumstances between Chinese and U.S. military aircraft and vessels.”

A strategy emphasizing military presence and military competition “will only heighten regional tensions and undermine world peace and stability,” Tan said. “No strategy should instigate countries to establish selective and exclusive military alliances, or to create a ‘New Cold War’ of confrontational blocs.”

Tan also noted “there is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is an integral part of China,” and said that currently China-Australia relations “face serious difficulties.”

The Group of Seven, or G7, made up of leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and United States, said on June 13 that, “We underscore the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” adding that “we remain seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas and strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo and increase tensions.”

Wallace, the British secretary of defense, said that while China is “increasingly assertive,” the HMS Queen Elizabeth and its carrier strike group “are not going to the other side of the world to be provocative. We will sail through the South China Sea. We will be confident, but not confrontational.”

The Air Force’s Wilsbach said it’s not just Pacific Air Forces that will fly with British strike group elements, “but my joint counterparts in the Marines and the Navy and the Army will be doing some training with them as well.”

Politico recently reported that the Defense Department is weighing the creation of a permanent Naval task force in the Pacific to counter China that could include countries such as Britain, France, Japan and Australia.

The first-ever leaders meeting of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, on March 12, meanwhile, involving the United States, Japan, Australia and India, produced a joint statement saying the nations are “united in a shared vision for the free and open Indo- Pacific.”

“We support the rule of law, freedom of navigation and overflight, peaceful resolution of disputes, democratic values and territorial integrity,” the group said.

Ralph Cossa, president emeritus and WSD-Handa chair for the Pacific Forum in Honolulu, said a significant level of international partner critical mass is developing in the Indo-Pacific in line with the free and open theme.

“Europe, like Asia, has become alarmed by increased Chinese assertiveness and aggressiveness,” Cossa said. “Not that long ago, all NATO wanted to talk about was Russia, Russia, Russia. Now it’s Russia, Russia, China. In a few more years, China may take pride of place.”

The “free and open” embrace “sends a strong signal to China that it is overplaying its hand and that countries are noticing and reacting,” Cossa said. “There was a reason (former Chinese leader) Deng Xiaoping cautioned that China should ‘hide its strength and bide its time.’ Xi Jinping’s aggressiveness and the global reaction shows Deng was right.”