JAKARTA/TAIPEI: Indonesia’s navy said on Wednesday that joint exercises which China said took place east of Taiwan were routine and not related to “war fighting,” after Taipei expressed alarm and called them dangerous.
China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, and in June began coast guard patrols off the island’s east coast, causing anger in Taipei and concern in Washington and some other Western capitals.
The drill, which China described as a “navigation exercise,” was the first time the country has carried out such an operation with a foreign military in those waters.
Taipei calls drill ‘military provocation’
China’s military said Chinese and Indonesian navy vessels concluded the drill in the waters east of Taiwan on Wednesday morning.
