The U.S. Navy sailed two guided missile warships through the Taiwan Strait on October 22.
“The ships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Army Colonel Robert Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, said. The Defense Department will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law permits, he added.
The USS Curtis Wilbur, an Arleigh Burke–class guided missile destroyer, and the USS Antietam, a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser, are both part of the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group.
U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis and General Wei Fenghe, China’s minister of national defense, recently met in Singapore and reaffirmed the importance of “dialogue, risk reduction, and open lines of communication,” according to the Department of Defense.
