‘Two US Navy warships sail through Taiwan Strait’

The US military says it has sent two Navy ships through the strategic Taiwan Strait, in yet another move certain to irritate Beijing, which claims sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan.

Citing a US military spokesman, Reuters reported on Wednesday that the destroyer Preble and the Navy oil tanker Walter S. Diehl had made the passage by sailing from south to north through the 180-kilometer-wide strait, which divides the self-governing island from mainland China.

“The ships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” said a statement from Commander Clay Doss, a spokesman for the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet, adding that there had been “safe and professional” interactions during the transit.

Taipei views such US military measures as a sign of support amid its tensions with Beijing.

The Taiwanese Defense Ministry confirmed the sailing and said Taiwan’s armed forces had monitored the transit and nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

The ministry also said US ships were free to sail through the Taiwan Strait as part of their “strategic Indo-Pacific tasks.”

There was no immediate reaction from China.

Beijing frequently objects to the movement of foreign military vessels in the strait based on its territorial claim on the self-governed island. Last month, Beijing complained to France after a French warship entered Chinese territorial waters while passing through the Taiwan Strait.

But the US is the country that sends the most ships to the strait. The US has sent warships sailing through the Taiwan Strait at least once a month since the start of this year.

SS