US Navy, Coast Guard ships pass through strategic Taiwan Strait
WASHINGTON: The United States sent Navy and Coast Guard ships through the Taiwan Strait, the military said, as the United States increases the frequency of movement through the strategic waterway despite opposition from China.
The voyage risks further raising tensions with China but will likely be viewed by self- ruled Taiwan as a sign of support from Washington amid growing friction between Taipei and Beijing.
The two ships were identified as the Navy Curtis Wilbur destroyer and the Coast Guard Bertholf cutter, a US military statement said.
“The ships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the statement said.
“The US will continue to f ly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows,” it added.
Taiwan is one of a growing number of flashpoints in the USChina relationship, which also include a trade war, US sanctions and China’s increasingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea, where the United States also conducts freedom of navigation patrols.
Washington has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to help defend the island nation and is its main source of arms. The Pentagon says Washington has sold Taiwan more than US$ 15 billion in weaponry since 2010.
China has been ramping up pressure to assert its sovereignty over the island, which it considers a wayward province of ‘one China’ and sacred Chinese territory. — Reuters