Japan, U.K., Canada express concerns over PLA drills around Taiwan

Taipei, April 3 (CNA) Japan, the United Kingdom and Canada have joined the United States and European Union in expressing concerns over China's recent two-day military drills around Taiwan that ended late Wednesday.

Asked to comment on the latest People's Liberation Army (PLA) military exercises in the waters and airspace around Taiwan, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Tokyo had conveyed its concern to Beijing about the military drills.

"We are watching it [the drill] with serious interest," Hayashi said at a press conference in Tokyo on Wednesday as the drills entered the second day. "Peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait are extremely important to the entire international community, including our country."

He said Tokyo would "take all possible measures for vigilance and surveillance activities," in light of China's increased military activity near Taiwan in recent years.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) also expressed the British government's concern over China's latest round of military exercises.

The exercises are "part of a pattern of activity which is increasing tensions and risking dangerous escalation in the Taiwan Strait," the unnamed spokesperson was quoted as saying in a statement issued Wednesday by the FCDO.

The U.K. has a "clear interest in peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, which is of critical importance to global prosperity and our support for a free and open Indo-Pacific," the spokesperson said.

According to the statement, the U.K. thinks the Taiwan issue should be settled peacefully by the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, through constructive dialogue, without the threat or use of force or coercion.

"Military drills or threats to Taiwan are not conducive to such dialogue," FCDO said. "We do not support any unilateral attempts to change the status quo."

Any actions that could undermine peace should be avoided, it added.

In similar vein, Canada's Global Affairs department called for a peaceful resolution of cross-strait differences and condemned China's recent drills.

"These threatening actions are increasing tensions and destabilizing the region, impacting global security and prosperity," the government department said in a Facebook post. "Canada calls on China to resolve cross-Strait differences by peaceful means."

The statements by the U.K., Canada and Japan followed similar expressions of concern by the U.S. and EU on Tuesday, when the PLA's Eastern Theater Command started its latest exercises in waters around Taiwan.

The two-day exercises served as "a stern warning" to "Taiwan independence" separatist forces, China's Taiwan Affairs Office said in a statement.