On Tuesday, the US navy said, a warship transited the strait separating Taiwan from China for the first time since leaders from the two rival nations met in a video summit.
It was a routine transit by the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Milius through the Taiwan Strait, the US Seventh Fleet announced.
The voyage, the 11th declared freedom of navigation exercise of the year, demonstrate the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.
The recent transit came after US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping traded strong warnings on the future of Taiwan at a virtual summit earlier this month.
In the Taiwan Strait, US warships conduct regular drills, sometimes provoking angry reactions from Beijing, which claims Taiwan and surrounding waters as its own.
In recent years, increasing numbers of US allies have traversed the route as Beijing intensifies its military threats towards Taiwan and consolidates its control over the South China Sea. In the recent years, British, Canadian, French, and Australian warships have all made passages through the Taiwan Strait, prompting protests from China.
