On Wednesday, marine warships from New Zealand and Australia sailed through the Taiwan Strait, part of the South China Sea, a maneuver Australia’s Department of Defence said showed the government’s commitment to an open, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
China asserts that Taiwan is its own, claims to be the only country that exercises its own independence and control over the sea.
The sea, a big trade route through which pass about half of the world’s container ships, is regarded as an international waterway by both the US and Taiwan.
In a speech to the UN General Assembly on Saturday, Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, stated that it has” constantly pressed China on peace and stability in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.”
According to a record, Wong stated that” we have welcomed the commencement of head and military stage dialogue between the US and China.”
China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, despite overlapping sea claims by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, angering its neighborhood.