Australian frigate sails Taiwan Strait

An Australian warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait, a government source said yesterday, in the latest transit of the sensitive waterway by a US ally that Chinese state-backed media said was tracked and monitored by the nation’s military.

In addition to claiming sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan, Beijing views the narrow, highly strategic strait as Chinese territorial waters and has responded aggressively on occasion to foreign navies sailing there.

The Toowoomba, an Anzac-class frigate of the Royal Australian Navy, “conducted a routine transit through the Taiwan Strait” on Friday and Saturday as part of a “Regional Presence Deployment in the Indo-Pacific region”, the source said.

“All interactions with foreign ships and aircraft were safe and professional,” the source said.

China’s state-backed Global Times newspaper, citing an unnamed Chinese military source, reported late on Saturday that “the Chinese People’s Liberation Army carried out full-process tracking, monitoring, and alert operations throughout the transit”.