Taiwan: US Navy warship and a Canadian warship crossed the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, according to both armies, at a time of rising military tension between Beijing and Taipei.
The transit was the second by a US Navy ship in a month and the second by the US and Canada in less than a year since October 2021.
While China has condemned the mission, saying its forces have "warned" ships, American warships and sometimes Allied ships such as Britain and Canada have regularly sailed through the strait in recent years. . ,
Such visits angered China, which claims Taiwan despite objections from the island's democratically elected government.
"Such cooperation is at the heart of our strategy for a secure and prosperous region," the US Navy said in a statement.
It stated that the Earl Burke-class guided-missile destroyer Higgins and the Royal Canadian Navy's Halifax-class frigate Vancouver crossed the strait via a corridor beyond the territorial sea of ​​any coastal state.
Canada's Defense Minister Anita Anand said that as a Pacific nation, her country is committed to maintaining global stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.
In a statement, it said, "Today's regular Taiwan Straits transit reflects our commitment to a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific."
Taiwan's foreign ministry welcomed the action.
"This operation through the Taiwan Strait is, even more so, a concrete demonstration of the democratic allies' steadfast opposition to China's expansionist efforts," it said.
The Eastern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army said its forces were monitoring the ships and "warning them."
"The theater forces are always on high alert, resolutely resisting all threats and provocations, and resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity," a statement said, adding that the phrase is commonly used as such. is done. Uses in reactions.
According to Taiwan's Ministry of Defense, the ship headed north via the waterway, and its forces spotted the mission, but "the situation remained normal."
A visit to Taiwan by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi in early August angered China, which later launched military exercises near the island, which continued on a much smaller scale.
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, the narrow Taiwan Strait has been a frequent source of military tension.
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