By Steven Stashwick
Source: The Diplomat
U.S. Defense officials confirmed that the Japan-based destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur and the cruiser USS Antietam transited through the Taiwan Strait on Monday. Reuters reported that the transit was being considered by U.S. officials two days before it was conducted.
The strait’s width varies between about 70 and 100 nautical miles and China’s and Taiwan’s territorial waters extend 12 nautical miles from their respective coastlines. The water between those territorial claims are considered high seas and not subject to sovereign claims or jurisdiction.
Since neither China nor Taiwan make excessive claims over the strait’s high seas the two warship’s passage would not be considered a freedom of navigation operation (FONOP), which the U.S. Navy uses to contest maritime claims that do not conform to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. A spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet told USNI News that the two ships’ transit through the strait demonstrated the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific and to operate wherever international law allowed.
Image source U.S. Navy
Read more at: https://thediplomat.com/2018/10/2-us-warships-transit-taiwan-strait/