The New Zealand military stated on the 9th that New Zealand’s largest naval vessel last month briefly encountered a Taiwanese warship while transiting the Taiwan Strait, and unusually, released photos taken at the time of the incident.
According to foreign media reports, the New Zealand Defence Force previously said that HMNZS Aotearoa passed through the Taiwan Strait en route from the South China Sea to Northeast Asia on November 5. During this period, seven Chinese warships followed and monitored it, but these vessels always maintained a safe and professional distance.
On the 8th, the New Zealand Defence Force published a report on its official website about HMNZS Aotearoa’s mission in Asia and released a photograph; the image shows a New Zealand sailor using binoculars to observe a warship in the distance, but the NZDF did not specify the identity of that warship.
A spokesperson for the New Zealand Defence Force told foreign media the warship in question was Taiwan’s Cheng Kung-class ship, and that HMNZS Aotearoa had a “brief encounter” with it while transiting the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense declined immediate comment.
Foreign media reported that while Taiwan does indeed monitor foreign warships in the Taiwan Strait, it is rare for photos of Taiwanese warships conducting such monitoring missions to be publicly released.
According to reports from Taiwanese media including Wind Media, United Daily News, and ETtoday News Cloud, Taiwan’s national security bureau chief Tsai Ming-yen said last week that this year there have been records of navy vessels from eight countries making twelve Taiwan Strait transits, including the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, the United Kingdom, and France. Two of these were joint operations respectively between the US and the UK, and Canada and Australia.
Tsai Ming-yen pointed out that the mainland China’s basic principle is to follow any transiting warship, always dispatching corresponding maritime forces for surveillance, and expressing its military presence and dominance in the Taiwan Strait through simulated air attacks.