Taiwan Welcomes Japan's "Policy Shift"

   Taipei, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)--The Sazanami passed through the Taiwan Strait last month to become the first Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer to do so, drawing praise in Taiwan for what it saw as a shift in Japan's security policy.
   Although Taiwan authorities have refrained from commenting on the Sazanami's passage through the critical strait that lies between China and Taiwan as the Japanese government has not officially acknowledged it, experts said it is significant that Japan, as a regional power, sent a clear message to China that the Taiwan Strait is "international waters."
   In recent years, the United States, which considers the Taiwan Strait as "international waters" and conducts "freedom of navigation" operations there, as well as some other foreign countries, including Canada, Britain, and France, have sent warships through the strait.
   Kuo Yu-jen, vice president of the Institute for National Policy Research, a prominent Taiwanese think tank, said the passage of U.S. warships through the Taiwan Strait is intended to issue a warning that the U.S. military could intervene in the name of protecting international waters in the event of a contingency.
   According to military experts, nine countries have sent their ships through the Taiwan Strait in the past year, three of them for the first time, including Japan. Of the Group of Seven major powers, Japan is the sixth country to have sailed through the strait.

(2024/10/07-13:17)

To read a full story, please click here to find out how to subscribe.