Photo of the US ship USS Boxer, June 16, 2019. - CRAIG Z. RODARTE / US NAVY / AFP

An American warship narrowly avoided a collision with a Russian vessel in the Arabian Sea when the latter "aggressively" approached the American vessel, the US Navy announced on Friday.

The destroyer USS Farragut, which belongs to the airborne group of the USS Abraham Lincoln, was conducting a routine patrol in the northern Arabian Sea on Thursday when it was approached very closely by a Russian warship, said the 5th American Fleet in a press release.

On Thursday, Jan. 9, while conducting routine operations in the North Arabian Sea, USS Farragut (DDG 99) was aggressively approached by a Russian Navy ship. pic.twitter.com/SCVyTINNqe

- US 5th Fleet (@ US5thFleet) January 10, 2020

The international maritime warning signal drawn

The USS Farragut had to sound five sirens, the international maritime warning signal, for the Russian vessel, which had approached very closely, to change its course, the statement said.

"The Russian ship initially refused, but it finally changed its course and the two ships moved away from each other," added the US Navy. "Although the Russian ship eventually took action, the initial delay before complying with international navigation rules during an aggressive approach increased the risk of collision."

An incident that already happened in June

The U.S. Navy 5th Fleet, which covers the Gulf, the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea and part of the Indian Ocean, posted an impressive video of the incident on Twitter. We see the Russian ship quickly approaching the USS Farragut from the rear, to the point that it almost seems to touch it, before changing direction at the last second.

International navigation rules stipulate that a ship arriving from the rear and wishing to overtake another ship is responsible for ensuring the safety of the ship it is overtaking. It is not the first time that an American ship has said that it was provoked by the Russian Navy. On June 7, an American cruiser and a Russian destroyer had narrowly avoided the collision in the China Sea, and the armies of the two countries had blamed each other for the incident.

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