A US destroyer and a Canadian frigate sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday in a new joint operation aimed at bolstering the route’s status as an international waterway.
The USS Higgins, an American destroyer and the Canadian frigate HMCS Vancouver “performed a routine transit through the Taiwan Strait on September 20 (…) in accordance with international law”said the US Navy’s 7th Fleet.
“The vessel transited through a corridor of the strait which lies beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state.” Canada said HMCS Vancouver was on its way to join an ongoing mission to enforce UN sanctions once morest North Korea when it transited with USS Higgins.
“Today’s routine transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates our commitment to a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific (region),” Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand said in a statement, using a different term for the Asia-Pacific region.
Asked by state television CCTV, a spokesperson for the Chinese army’s Eastern Command described the transit as “hype”claiming that the Chinese troops were “still on heightened alert” pour “to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
Beijing believes that Taiwan is part of its territory and that the strait that separates the island from mainland China, and which is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, belongs to it.