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Second joint transit by the navies of the two nations from October 2021 China’s military says it was monitoring, warned the ships The narrow waterway was a frequent source of tension
Sept 20 (Reuters) – A U.S. Navy warship and a Canadian frigate made a routine transit through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, militaries of both nations said, at a time of heightened military tension between Beijing and Taipei. The crossing was the second in a month by a US Navy ship and the second jointly by the United States and Canada in less than a year, starting in October 2021. Read more While China condemned the mission, saying its forces “warned off” the ships, US warships, and occasionally those of allies such as Britain and Canada, have been seen regularly sailing through the strait in recent years. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Such trips anger China, which claims Taiwan over the objections of the island’s democratically elected government. “Such cooperation represents the centerpiece of our approach to a secure and prosperous region,” the US Navy said in a statement. The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer Higgins and the Royal Canadian Navy’s Halifax-class frigate Vancouver made the passage through a corridor in the strait that lies beyond the territorial waters of any coastal state, he added. Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand said that as a Pacific nation, her country is deeply committed to maintaining global stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region. “Today’s routine transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates our commitment to a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific,” it said in a statement. Taiwan’s foreign ministry welcomed the move. “This operation in the Taiwan Straits is, even more, a concrete demonstration of the determined opposition of the democratic allies to China’s expansion efforts,” it said. China’s People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command said its forces were monitoring the ships and had “warned” them. “Theater forces are always on the alert, resolutely face all threats and challenges, and resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” it said in a statement, using its usual phraseology for such responses. Taiwan’s defense ministry said the ships sailed north through the waterway and its forces observed the mission, but “the situation was normal”. A visit to Taiwan in early August by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi angered China, which then began military exercises near the island that have continued, albeit on a much reduced scale. The narrow Taiwan Strait has been a frequent source of military tension since the defeated government of the Republic of China fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with the Communists, who founded the People’s Republic of China. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Report by Idrees Ali. Additional reporting by Michael Martina, Ben Blanchard and Steve Scherer. Edited by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Clarence Fernandez Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
