Australian warship transits Taiwan Strait, tracked by China's navy

SYDNEY, Feb 22: An Australian warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait, a government source said on Sunday, in the latest transit of the sensitive waterway by a U.S. ally that Chinese state-backed media said was tracked and monitored by the nation's military.

In addition to claiming sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan, Beijing views the narrow, highly strategic strait as Chinese territorial waters and has responded aggressively on occasion to foreign navies sailing there.

The Toowoomba, an Anzac-class frigate of the Royal Australian Navy, "conducted a routine transit through the Taiwan Strait" on Friday and Saturday as part of a "Regional Presence Deployment in the Indo-Pacific region", the source said.    �"REUTERS