BEIJING (Reuters) – The U.S. destroyer USS Rafael Peralta and a Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Ottawa transited the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, the U.S. 7th Fleet said in a statement, making their third joint transit in the region since June.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said the two warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait in a northerly direction on Wednesday night, adding it monitored the movement and the situation was “normal.”
China followed and monitored the transit and handled the situation in line with the law and regulations, the People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command said in a statement on Thurday.
The U.S. and Canadian navies made a similar transit in September.
In June, the U.S. navy released a video of what it called an “unsafe interaction” in the Taiwan Strait in which a Chinese warship crossed in front of a U.S. destroyer. Chinese foreign ministry said its military’s measures were completely reasonable, legitimate, and professional and safe.
The U.S. destroyer USS Chung-Hoon and Canadian frigate Montreal were conducting a “routine” transit of the strait in June.
(Reporting by Albee Zhang and Ryan Woo in Beijing and Yi-Mou Lee in Taiwan; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
