Global Courant 2023-04-17 07:07:39
TAIPEI — The US warship USS Milius sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, in what the US Navy described Monday as a “routine” transit, just days after China ended its latest war games around the island.
China, which views Taiwan as a renegade province to be reunited with the country, by force if necessary, on April 10 officially ended three days of exercises around the island during which it carried out precision strikes and blockaded Taiwan.
It organized the exercises to express anger over Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with Speaker of the US House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy on April 5.
The U.S. Navy 7th Fleet said the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Milius was conducting a “routine transit through the Taiwan Strait” through waters “where freedom of navigation and overflight on the high seas applies in accordance with the international law”.
The ship’s transit demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific, it added.
The US Navy sails warships through the strait about once a month and also regularly conducts similar freedom of navigation missions in the disputed South China Sea.
Last week, the USS Milius sailed near one of the main man-made and Chinese-controlled islands in the South China Sea, Mischief Reef. Beijing denounced it as illegal.
China has continued its military activities around Taiwan since the end of the exercises, albeit on a smaller scale.
On Monday morning, Taiwan’s defense ministry said it had seen 18 Chinese military aircraft and four naval vessels operating around Taiwan in the past 24 hours. REUTERS
