The British Royal Navy has a right to transit through the Taiwan Strait, British Secretary of Defence Grant Shapps said yesterday, shortly after announcing that a carrier strike group would sail there.
Speaking in an interview with British newspaper the Times, Shapps said that international law protects freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait, but added that the path of the British warships had yet not been decided.
The carrier strike group, consisting of one aircraft carrier and escort ships, is to visit Japan as part of the flagship 2025 Indo-Pacific deployment, the British Ministry of Defence said in a news release.
Photo: EPA-EFE / MOD / CROWN COPYRIGHT
“The strength and global reach of the UK’s armed forces should never be underestimated,” Shapps was quoted as saying. “The carrier strike group 2025 is another tangible example of our ability to deploy globally.”
“Such deployments send a strong deterrence message while presenting important opportunities for engagements with key partners,” he said.
The carrier strike group represents a concentration of “cutting-edge air, surface and underwater defense” capabilities, but is also “a focal point for worldwide democratic activity,” the ministry said.
Separately yesterday, Representative to the US Alexander Yui called on the West to “not look the other way” in responding to a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
“The best defense, best help that you can do for Taiwan ... is by actively, openly voicing your concerns that you will not accept Chinese aggression towards Taiwan,” Yui said in an interview with Politico.
Faced with a belligerent China that is preparing “very seriously to have the ability to invade Taiwan,” the nation has opted to “increase defense capabilities” in a bid to defeat “any possible aggressions in the future,” he said.
Drawing a parallel with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Yui said the ongoing war “is a mirror to Taiwan,” which is also “facing an attack from a much larger country.”
Taiwan is seeking to improve its defensive capabilities as Kyiv did following Moscow’s illegal annexation of Crimea and part of the Donbas region in 2014, he said.
“So the threats are there and we want to preserve our way of life,” Yui said. “We want to preserve our democracy. We want to preserve liberties, and we will defend it.”
Beijing is expected to put immense pressure on Taiwan from the elections on Jan. 13 to the presidential inauguration in May to force the president-elect to make concessions to placate China in their inaugural speech, he said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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