(NewsNation) — The U.S. Navy is responding after the Chinese military says it drove out an American warship in the disputed South China Sea.

The ship was reportedly on a routine freedom of navigation operation and had the right to be there per international law, according to Reuters.

It’s the first interaction since President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping’s high-profile meeting in San Francisco earlier this month.

China is calling this move a “security risk creator,” while the U.S. is pointing to international law giving the ship the right to pass through this highly disputed territory.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Southern Theatre Command posted on social media Saturday saying it had deployed its naval and air forces to “track, monitor and warn away” the U.S. destroyer — the USS Hopper.

The U.S. rebuffed what it calls China’s unlawful restrictions requiring permission to pass.

This comes as two U.S. allies — Australia and the Philippines — launched their first joint sea and air patrols in the area.

China has claimed nearly all of the South China Sea and attempts to control maritime rights there without any legal basis, essentially ignoring claims by the Phillippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and several other countries in the region.

Beijing has stationed many military ships in the sea as a show of force.

The U.S. Navy responded to China’s accusations it is disrupting peace in the region:

“The United States upholds freedom of navigation for all nations as a principle. As long as some countries continue to claim and assert limits on rights that exceed their authority under international law, the United States will continue to defend the rights and freedoms of the sea guaranteed to all.”

All eyes are on the Biden administration and how it will respond to this given the agreement for high-level military-to-military communication between the U.S. and China that came out of the meeting with Biden and Xi.