The Carrier Strike Group of the Royal Navy is about to set out on a trip to the Pacific. One of the things we don’t yet know is exactly what routes the Strike Group – or parts of it – may follow. In particular we don’t know if the Group or elements of it will pass through the South China Sea or the Taiwan Strait.
This matters, because China claims that everything inside the infamous “Nine Dash Line” – basically most of the South China Sea – is its own territorial waters. Equally without any basis in international law, China claims that the Taiwan Strait is its own internal waters.
The international law of the sea disagrees, saying that most of the South China Sea and the Strait are international waters – the “high seas”. The principle of freedom of navigation applies, asserting that any ship of any nation has the right to pass through such waters without interference except in clearly defined circumstances such as vessels engaged in piracy or slave trading.
Freedom of navigation is one of those things where if you don’t use it, you might lose it. The US Navy in particular carries out “Freedom of Navigation Operations”, or FONOPS, on a regular basis, sending its warships through disputed waters just to make the point that it can. In the Royal Navy, having fewer ships, we do this less often and we don’t particularly call it FONOPS – I don’t recall ever using the term in 20+ years at sea. Nonetheless we have been doing it on a routine basis time out of mind, going through the Strait of Hormuz in and out of the Gulf in the teeth of Iranian harassment.
The Carrier Strike Group of the Royal Navy is about to set out on a trip to the Pacific. One of the things we don’t yet know is exactly what routes the Strike Group – or parts of it – may follow. In particular we don’t know if the Group or elements of it will pass through the South China Sea or the Taiwan Strait.
This matters, because China claims that everything inside the infamous “Nine Dash Line” – basically most of the South China Sea – is its own territorial waters. Equally without any basis in international law, China claims that the Taiwan Strait is its own internal waters.
The international law of the sea disagrees, saying that most of the South China Sea and the Strait are international waters – the “high seas”. The principle of freedom of navigation applies, asserting that any ship of any nation has the right to pass through such waters without interference except in clearly defined circumstances such as vessels engaged in piracy or slave trading.
Freedom of navigation is one of those things where if you don’t use it, you might lose it. The US Navy in particular carries out “Freedom of Navigation Operations”, or FONOPS, on a regular basis, sending its warships through disputed waters just to make the point that it can. In the Royal Navy, having fewer ships, we do this less often and we don’t particularly call it FONOPS – I don’t recall ever using the term in 20+ years at sea. Nonetheless we have been doing it on a routine basis time out of mind, going through the Strait of Hormuz in and out of the Gulf in the teeth of Iranian harassment.