US and Canadian ships pass through the Taiwan Strait

UPDATE DAY

American ships, USS Chung-Hoon, and Canadian ships, HMCS Montreal, crossed the Taiwan Strait on Saturday, which has turned into a geopolitical powder keg in recent years, announced the United States Navy and the Canadian Army. 

“The passage of the Chung-Moon and the Montreal through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the commitment of the United States and its allies and partners to a free and open Indo-Pacific region,” the U.S. 7th Fleet said. /p>

The United States and Canada are “partners working for peace and security in the region,” the Canadian military tweeted.

American ships regularly cross the Taiwan Strait, but they rarely do so accompanied by an allied ship. The last joint US-Canadian visit dates back to September.

This visit comes as US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu briefly greeted each other for the first time during the opening dinner of the Shangri-La defense dialogue conference in Singapore.

Three Chinese ships, including the aircraft carrier Shandong, crossed the Taiwan Strait at the end of May. While the presence of Chinese warships in the Taiwan Strait is constantly monitored and announced almost daily by Taipei, that of the aircraft carrier Shandong is unusual.

Since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, China considers Taiwan as a province that it has not yet succeeded in reunifying with the rest of its territory.

Relations between Beijing and Taipei, at their lowest since the he rise to power of Xi Jinping more than 10 years ago has deteriorated further in recent years, and China has stepped up military incursions around the island.