The U.S. is reiterating that it has the right to send a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to international waters in the Yellow Sea for joint drills with South Korea, despite opposition from China.

The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, made the remark to a media roundtable in Australia on Monday.

Mullen said that the waters where the exercises will take place are international and thus are not owned by China or South Korea. He said the U.S. will continue to sail in these waters as it has done for years.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that the U.S. has long believed in the importance of freedom of navigation and that it intends to abide by international law in regards to the matter.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said in a news briefing last week that the U.S. will conduct joint military drills with South Korea in the Yellow Sea and that the George Washington supercarrier will take part in the exercises.