Russian warships spotted off Taiwan’s east coast ‘on way home’ from Komodo drills

Island’s military detected the two corvettes on Tuesday and tracked them as they headed north
Defence ministry confirmed they did not enter 12-mile limit of territorial waters, analyst says

Taiwan

Minnie Chan

Published: 10:00am, 29 Jun 2023

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Two Russian warships were seen near the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, but analysts have played down the significance of the transit, saying they were likely heading home after taking part in a multilateral naval exercise in Indonesia early this month.

Beijing – which often criticises transits through the Taiwan Strait by foreign warships – has made no mention of the Russian warships’ passage.

In a statement late on Tuesday, Taiwan’s defence ministry said two Russian corvettes had been spotted sailing north in waters off the eastern coast of the island. Taiwan’s military detected the corvettes at about 11pm and tracked them until they left its monitoring range from Suao port.

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The Russian warships were believed to have taken part in the Komodo drills, held near the Indonesian island of Sulawesi in early June. Warships from 36 countries – including China, the US, Britain and South Korea – joined the exercises.

Drew Thompson, a visiting senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, said Taiwan’s defence ministry had confirmed to him that the Russian warships “had not entered the 12-mile limit of Taiwan’s territorial waters”.

“I don’t think this will increase tensions, or Russia was trying to coerce Taiwan,” he said.

Thompson said the Russian warships were “exercising the freedom of navigation” and “on their way home” from the Komodo drills, which ended on June 8.

The last time Taiwan observed Russian warships sailing off its eastern coast was in July last year, when the destroyer Marshal Shaposhnikov led a corvette and a supply ship northeast through waters near the eastern county of Hualien.

Song Zhongping, a retired People’s Liberation Army instructor, noted that Russian warships had previously sailed through open waters near Taiwan for routine drills in the South China Sea and the western Pacific.

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Former Taiwanese defence minister Andrew Yang Nien-dzu said the fact that the Russian vessels were sailing 26 nautical miles off Taiwan’s Suao port suggested it was “an innocent passage”.

Macau-based military analyst Antony Wong Tong also described it as an “innocent passage” but noted that the timing was sensitive given that Russian President Vladimir Putin had just survived a short-lived mutiny.

“It may be a gesture by Putin to show his support for Beijing over its Taiwan policy,” Wong said.

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Collin Koh, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said it was wise for Taipei to play down the incident.

“Unless the Russians engage in actions that run contrary to what amounts to legitimate freedom of passage through these waters, it’s wise for [Taiwan’s] Ministry of National Defence to play it down lest it creates a case of double standards,” Koh said, referring to the island’s recognition of the legitimate rights of foreign navies to transit through the Taiwan Strait.

Beijing sees self-governed Taiwan as breakaway territory and has never ruled out the use of force to take control of it. While most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, they are opposed to any change in the status quo by force.