File picture of the Royal Australian Navy vessel, HMAS Toowoomba.
| Photograph Credit score: Reuters
An Australian warship sailed by the Taiwan Strait, a authorities supply mentioned on Sunday (February 22, 2026) within the newest transit of the delicate waterway by a U.S. ally, which Chinese language state-backed media mentioned was tracked and monitored by the nation’s navy.
Along with claiming sovereignty over democratically ruled Taiwan, Beijing views the slim, extremely strategic strait as Chinese language territorial waters and has responded aggressively from time to time to international navies crusing there.
The Toowoomba, an Anzac-class frigate of the Royal Australian Navy, “carried out a routine transit by the Taiwan Strait” on Friday (February 20, 2026) and Saturday (February 21, 2026) as a part of a “Regional Presence Deployment within the Indo-Pacific area”, the supply mentioned.
“All interactions with international ships and plane have been protected and skilled,” the supply mentioned.
China’s state-backed International Occasions newspaper, citing an unnamed Chinese language navy supply, reported late on Saturday that “the Chinese language Individuals’s Liberation Military carried out full-process monitoring, monitoring, and alert operations all through the transit.”
U.S. warships traverse the strait each few months, enraging Beijing, and a few U.S. allies, reminiscent of France, Australia, Britain and Canada, have additionally made occasional transits.
China has ramped up its navy presence round Taiwan and staged its newest warfare video games round the island in late December.
Taiwan’s authorities rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying solely the island’s folks can resolve their future.
Printed – February 22, 2026 08:39 am IST