R&R back on track as Kitty Hawk visits Hong Kong

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The USS Kitty Hawk and strike group were refused permission by Beijing to dock in Hong Kong for a long-planned Thanksgiving holiday in November with hundreds of families having flown in for the occasion, sparking a diplomatic tiff.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - The USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier docked in Hong Kong on Monday for the first time since Beijing banned a visit last November, with its rear admiral saying such U.S. navy port calls were now back on course.

The USS Kitty Hawk and strike group were refused permission by Beijing to dock in Hong Kong for a long-planned Thanksgiving holiday in November with hundreds of families having flown in for the occasion, sparking a diplomatic tiff.

The aircraft carrier's top brass said while the episode was a disappointment, the Kitty Hawk's belated arrival in the former British colony meant relations with Beijing were back on track.

"There's no hard feeling, ill will, at all," said Rear Admiral Richard Wren, who oversees the Kitty Hawk strike group.

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"We're back on track, it's normal, I would say we're status quo," he told reporters inside the Kitty Hawk's massive hangar.

Wren said he expected Beijing to allow around 40 U.S. military ships to dock in Hong Kong this year, slightly more than the number last year, and that it would be "unusual and unexpected" if it didn't.

"Other than that one little hiccup with Kitty Hawk, if you look at the history of the last few years and then if you watch what happens for the next year, which is still in planning, I think you'll kind of go, that's just a little blip," Wren said.

Wren however said the United States still hadn't been given a clear explanation as to why the Kitty Hawk was turned away last year.

"We're not completely satisfied with the answer. We were never provided with a concise explanation of why," he said.

Beijing has claimed it was a misunderstanding.

The 47-year-old Kitty Hawk is America's oldest active warship. The Hong Kong visit will be its last overseas port visit before being decommissioned in the Bremerton naval shipyard, in Washington state, next January.

The Kitty Hawk will be replaced by the nuclear-powered USS George Washington in the western Pacific.

(Reporting by James Pomfret; Editing by Alex Richardson)