Published October 21,2024
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The U.S. and Canada despatched warships via the Taiwan Strait, with China issuing a warning on Monday, claiming such actions “undermine” peace within the area.
According to the U.S. Navy’s seventh Fleet, which operates within the Asia-Pacific, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Higgins (DDG 76) and the Royal Canadian Navy’s Halifax-class frigate HMCS Vancouver (FFH 331) performed a “routine” transit of the Taiwan Strait on Sunday.
The U.S. seventh Fleet’s assertion stated the warships navigated via a “high seas corridor in the strait that is beyond the territorial waters of any coastal state.”
The voyage was additionally described as demonstrating the 2 nations’ “commitment” to “upholding freedom of navigation for all nations as a principle,” the assertion added.
Rejecting any “assertion of sovereignty or jurisdiction that is inconsistent with freedom of navigation, overflight, and other lawful uses of the sea and air,” the U.S. navy emphasised that the worldwide neighborhood’s rights within the Taiwan Strait “should not be restricted.”
However, China’s navy warned that the passage of the U.S. and Canadian warships “disrupted the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait.”
Li Xi, spokesperson for the Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), acknowledged that China is “on high alert at all times and resolutely safeguards national sovereignty and security, as well as regional peace and stability.”
Li added that naval and air forces organized by the command “closely followed and monitored the vessels’ passage through the strait, addressing the situation in accordance with laws and regulations.”
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry additionally confirmed the voyage, stating that the warships sailed via the Taiwan Strait from south to north on Sunday. The Taiwanese armed forces “maintained full control over the surrounding sea and airspace, with the situation remaining normal,” it stated on the social media platform X.
Source: www.anews.com.tr