Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/29
By: Elaine Hou
Taipei, May 29 (CNA) Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said Friday it had been
CNA file photo
closely monitoring two French military vessels that passed near Taiwan earlier this month, and there was no truth to a local media report that it had failed to identify the ships.
The ministry said one of the vessels was a Mistral-class amphibious assault ship that passed east of Taiwan on May 6, while the other was a La Fayette-class frigate that sailed through the Taiwan Strait the following day.
In a statement, the defense ministry said it was on top of the situation as the two French vessels sailed northward past Taiwan and it had put response measures in place. However, none of the French military ships entered Taiwan’s territorial waters, the ministry said, adding that the information reported on the website of Storm Media was inaccurate.
Storm Media reported earlier in the day the two ships had been mistaken for fishing boats by Navy radar stations in southern and eastern Taiwan, therefore, no further efforts were made to identify the vessels. [FULL STORY]
