A US destroyer and a Canadian frigate sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday in the latest joint operation aimed at cementing the route’s status as an international waterway.
Beijing claims its rights over Taiwan’s territory and the narrow waters separating the island from mainland China – one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
But The United States has long used the “freedom of navigation” through the Taiwan Strait to deny China’s claims, and Western allies are increasingly joining the operation.
USS Higgins, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, in cooperation with the Royal Canadian Navy’s Halifax Vancouver-class frigate “made a routine passage through the Taiwan Strait on September 20 in accordance with international law,” the US Navy reported.
“The ship transits through a corridor in a Strait that is outside the territorial sea of any coastal State.”
Canada says HMCS Vancouver is on its way to join an ongoing mission to enforce UN sanctions against North Korea when it transits the USS Higgins through the Taiwan Strait.
“Today’s routine navigation in the Taiwan Strait demonstrates our commitment to a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific,” Canada’s Defense Minister Anita Anand said in a statement, using another term for the Asia-Pacific region. .
A Chinese spokesman described the crossing as a “public show”.
“Troops are always on high alert, resolutely resist all threats and provocations, and resolutely uphold national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Colonel Shi Yi was quoted as saying by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
British, Canadian, French and Australian warships have passed through the Taiwan Strait in recent years, prompting protests from Beijing.
Western ships also regularly cross the South China Sea, another important shipping area that Beijing says is under its control, despite a 2016 The Hague ruling rejecting its claims, as well as some of its rival neighbors.
The last time American and Canadian warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait was 11 months ago, when the destroyer USS Dewey and the frigate HMCS Winnipeg made the trip.
The latest joint passage comes a day after President Joe Biden again stated that American troops would come to Taiwan’s aid in the event of a Chinese invasion.
This is the fourth time Biden has made such comments, despite Washington’s longtime official policy of “strategic ambiguity” – designed to prevent a Chinese invasion and to prevent Taiwan from provoking Beijing by formally declaring independence.
Each time, following Biden’s comments, the White House reiterated that there was no change in US policy towards Taiwan.
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