The UK Carrier Strike Group (CSG25), led by HMS Prince of Wales, has arrived in Singapore after transiting the South China Sea, reinforcing Britain’s Indo-Pacific presence and signalling its opposition to excessive maritime claims.
According to an update from the Carrier Strike Group, “Having transited the South China Sea, it’s great for us to be back in Singapore.”
The stop comes at a politically charged moment. The South China Sea is one of the world’s most contested waterways, with Beijing claiming almost the entire area under its so-called “nine-dash line” despite rulings under international law rejecting those claims. China has built artificial islands, militarised outposts, and regularly challenges foreign naval operations in the region.
For Britain, the passage highlights its growing role in upholding freedom of navigation in waters increasingly treated by Beijing as its own. The UK insists that the South China Sea is international water, critical for global trade, with a third of world shipping passing through every year. By sailing a carrier strike group through the contested waters, Britain has joined allies in signalling that China’s expansive claims will not go uncontested.
The transit follows another flashpoint earlier this month, when HMS Richmond sailed through the Taiwan Strait alongside the U.S. destroyer USS Higgins. China’s Eastern Theater Command denounced the passage as “trouble-making and provocation,” claiming to have dispatched naval and air units to shadow the vessels.
London rejected that characterisation, stating: “Wherever the Royal Navy operates, it does so in full compliance with international law and norms, and exercises freedom of navigation rights in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.”
Washington echoed the point, stressing that “the ships transited through a corridor in the strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state. Navigational rights and freedoms in the Taiwan Strait should not be limited.”
China views the Taiwan Strait as internal waters and its wider South China Sea claims as sovereign territory. Western governments argue both are international waterways, essential to global commerce and security.
Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs) challenge Beijing’s interpretation directly, and the Royal Navy’s decision to sail through both flashpoints in quick succession represents a deliberate show of allied resolve.
