Two U.S. Navy warships transited the Taiwan Strait on Sunday — the first such sailings since China held massive military exercises around Taiwan in response to a visit to the self-ruled island by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The guided-missile cruisers USS Antietam and USS Chancellorsville conducted "a routine Taiwan Strait transit ... through waters where high seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law,” a U.S. Navy 7th Fleet spokesperson told The Japan Times. “These ships transited through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal State.”
The 7th Fleet said the ship's transit through the Taiwan Strait “demonstrates the United States' commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The United States military flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows."