US Seventh Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Karl Thomas on Friday reiterated the importance of conducting freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait, as he recognized Australia and Canada for their transits.
Speaking at a maritime security dialogue event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ International Security Program and the US Naval Institute, Thomas said that China’s territorial claims in the region are beyond what the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea allows, and are illegal under an international tribunal ruling.
“It’s very important that we don’t accept [China’s claims] and that’s why do we do freedom of navigation operations,” he said.
Photo: AFP / US Navy
Thomas said the naval transits were intended to “push back, take a stand” so that China would not continue to move the ball down the field, giving a nod toward Australia and Canada for doing the same.
Arleigh Burke-class destroyer the USS Higgins and Canadian Halifax-class frigate the HMCS Vancouver traveled through the Taiwan Strait on Sept. 20, while Australian Majestic-class carrier the HMAS Melbourne sailed through the Taiwan Strait in September 2018.
Freedom-of-navigation operations are not all aimed at China, but are carried out to deter excessive claims by any nation, Thomas said.
China should take note that any country trying to use military force to expand its territory would meet resistance from the international community, he said, adding that every country should take heed that the US and like-minded nations would support friendly countries that have been illegally invaded.
“I think that we have a responsibility through the Taiwan Relations Act to provide defensive capabilities to Taiwan and to make sure that we are ready, and we are, and our desire to be — to have peaceful resolution of cross-strait differences,” Thomas said.
Regarding China’s response to US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August, a response he called “irresponsible,” Thomas said that democratic nations must communicate with each other to understand and respond to each other’s needs.
China’s reaction of firing “ballistic missiles over Taiwan and have them land in the maritime commons and shipping lanes and some of them actually landing in the Japanese” exclusive economic zone was an overreaction, he said.
“I think that’s not the way that countries that want to be leaders within the world should behave,” he said.
Commenting on Beijing’s interactions with Moscow, Thomas said that it is a challenge calling on China to answer for its actions, as it often stays “below the radar” of the UN and international mechanisms even when it challenges the rules-based international order.
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