Mr. Chair, the United States, as the member correctly notes, conducts freedom of navigation operations throughout the world, but particularly in the Indo-Pacific region. The joint transit of the Taiwan Strait between HMCS Winnipeg and USS Dewey would not fall into the category of what the United States classifies as as FONOP, a freedom of navigation operation. Both the Dewey and the Winnipeg travelled exactly equidistant between mainland China and Taiwan, so the two vessels were in fact passing through international waters.
Different operations that the United States undertakes that are classified as FONOPs move into territories or territorial waters that are claimed, rightly or wrongly, by one country or another. That was not the case in this transit of the Taiwan Strait.