Washington:
A U.S. warship and a U.S. Coast Guard cutter sailed by way of the Taiwan Strait on Friday, the most up-to-date in what Washington calls routine operations by way of the sensitive waterway that separates Taiwan from China, which claims the self-ruled island.
The passage comes amid a spike in military tensions in the previous two years among Taiwan and China, and follows Chinese assault drills last week, with warships and fighter jets working out off the island’s southwest and southeast.
The Kidd, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, accompanied by the Coast Guard cutter Munro, transited “through international waters in accordance with international law,” the U.S. Navy stated in a statement.
“The ships’ lawful transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The United States military flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows,” it stated.
The U.S. Navy has been conducting such operations about every single month or so, angering China, which sees Taiwan as its territory and has in no way renounced the use of force to bring the democratic island beneath its handle.
The United States, like most nations, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but is its most vital international backer and a important seller of arms to the island.
China’s state-controlled media have seized on the United States’ chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in current weeks to portray U.S. help for Taiwan and regional allies as fickle.
But U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has been fast to dismiss any connection among Afghanistan and the United States’ commitment to the Indo-Pacific.
Vice President Kamala Harris accused China of “bullying and excessive maritime claims” through trips to Vietnam and Singapore this week, the most up-to-date in a string of visits by prime U.S. officials to the Indo-Pacific aimed at cementing U.S. commitment to the area.
(This story has not been edited by TheSpuzz employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)