China Holds Military Exercises Around Taiwan, Kremlin: It's A Sovereign Right, Provoked By Nancy Pelosi's Visit

JAKARTA - Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said China had the sovereign right to hold military exercises around Taiwan, referring to the visit of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi as a provocation.

China fired several missiles around Taiwan on Thursday as it launched an unprecedented military exercise, a day after Nancy Pelosi's visit.

"This (military exercise) is China's sovereign right," Peskov said when asked about the drills being held by Beijing.

"Tensions in the region and around Taiwan were provoked by the visit of Nancy Pelosi," Peskov said in a statement to reporters.

"It was a completely unnecessary visit and an unnecessary provocation," he stressed.

As previously reported, as Pelosi's plane took off from Songshan airport on Wednesday night, Taiwan faced days of military activity that threatened to escalate into a fourth Taiwan strait crisis.

Taiwan's Defense Ministry has accused Beijing of plotting to violate international conventions on the law of the sea, by violating Taiwan's sovereign territory.

Meanwhile, China's military frequently conducts live-fire drills in the strait and surrounding seas, planned this week to surround Taiwan's main island and target areas within its territorial sea.

Veerle Nouwens, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank, said the location of the six exclusion zones was noteworthy.

"Specifically, the exclusion zone appears to no longer focus on China's coastline, but rather surrounds Taiwan," he said, adding that China has different interpretations of which law applies to what it considers its own maritime zone, citing The Guardian.

China's ruling Communist Party government, which regards Taiwan as its territory even though it has never ruled the island, has repeatedly warned of retaliation for the visit.