BEIJING (Reuters) -A U.S. Navy patrol aircraft transited the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday “in international airspace”, the U.S. 7th Fleet said in a statement, adding that it demonstrated the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.
U.S. military ships or aircraft pass through or above the sensitive waterway that separates democratically governed Taiwan from China around once a month, in missions that always anger Beijing.
China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, and says it has jurisdiction over the strait. Taiwan and the United States dispute that, saying the Taiwan Strait is an international waterway.
The U.S. Navy’s 7th fleet said a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft had flown through the strait.
“By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations,” it said in a statement.
There was no immediate response from China’s defence ministry.
In April, China’s military said it sent fighter jets to monitor and warn a U.S. Navy Poseidon in the Taiwan Strait, a mission that took place just hours after a call between the Chinese and U.S. defence chiefs.
(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Additional reporting and writing by Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by Tom Hogue and Edwina Gibbs)