Japan has dispatched a warship through the Taiwan Strait for the first time, according to Japanese media, as China increases its military activities surrounding Japan.
The Sazanami entered the strait from the East China Sea on Wednesday morning and spent more than 10 hours sailing south to make the crossing, national broadcaster NHK and the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported on Thursday.
According to reports, the voyage was made with Australian and New Zealand naval ships in preparation for training in the disputed South China Sea.
Yoshimasa Hayashi, Japan’s top government spokesperson, declined to comment on the reports during a regular briefing since they included military activities. There was no quick confirmation from the Ministry of Defense.
New Zealand’s navy confirmed its ship, the HMNZS Aotearoa, had sailed through the strait with HMAS Sydney from the Australian Navy. A spokesman told the AFP news agency its first transit in seven years was to assert the “right of freedom of navigation.
The three ships’ transit comes a week after the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning sailed for the first time between two Japanese islands near Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy that Beijing claims as its own.
The Yomiuri Shimbun cited multiple unnamed government sources as saying Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had ordered the Taiwan Strait transit over concern that doing nothing in the wake of the Chinese activities could encourage Beijing to take more assertive actions
.In Tokyo on Thursday, spokesman Hayashi expressed concern about China’s increased military activity in the region