Taiwan monitored transit of U.S., U.K. warships through Taiwan Strait: MND

Taipei, Sept. 13 (CNA) Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) said Saturday that the military had deployed reconnaissance planes to closely monitor the maritime and air situation around the country as American and British warships transited the Taiwan Strait a day earlier.

The MND said it had a full grasp of the situation and had taken such action to avoid any unwanted accidents and ensure Taiwan's security.

On Friday, an American destroyer the USS Higgins and a British frigate the HMS Richmond sailed through the Taiwan Strait from north to south.

A spokesperson for the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence said the transit of the HMS Richmond was "a routine passage as part of Carrier Strike Group 25."

The group, led by the HMS Prince Wales, is a seven-and-a-half-month global deployment to the Indo-Pacific region that started on April 22.

"Wherever the Royal Navy operates, it does so in full compliance with international law and norms, and exercises freedom of navigation rights in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea," the U.K. defense ministry spokesperson told CNA.

According to a Reuters report, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command also said that the transit on Friday was a routine mission.

"The ships transited through a corridor in the strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state," the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command was quoted as saying in the report. "Navigational rights and freedoms in the Taiwan Strait should not be limited."

China, however, said the transit of the two warships was a "provocative" action to which it had responded by sending its navy and air force troops to track and monitor the movements of the two ships.

"The actions of the U.S. and the U.K. sent the wrong signals and undermined peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait," Army Senior Colonel Shi Yi (施毅), spokesperson for the People's Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command, said in a statement.

Last week, the Canadian frigate HMCS Ville de Québec and the Australian destroyer HMAS Brisbane sailed through the Taiwan Strait, a move that was welcomed by Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

It was the second time this year and the seventh time in less than three years that a Canadian warship transited the Taiwan Strait, and the first time this year that an Australian warship sailed through that route, according to MOFA.