Royal Navy personnel onboard HMS Tamar meet with servicemen from the Royal Cambodian Navy last August 28. Official handout.
Manuel Mogato | September 6, 2026
LONDON — A British Royal Navy vessel sailed in the South China Sea alongside the Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Perth to exercise freedom of navigation in disputed waters, the defense ministry said in a statement.
The defense ministry said a joint British and Australian navies asserted navigational rights in waters where China maintains expansive claims.
The activity has been conducted in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and that the UK remains committed to upholding a free, open and stable South China Sea, the defense ministy added.
HMS Tamar is one of two Batch 2 River-class offshore patrol vessels forward-deployed to the Indo-Pacific since 2021 alongside sister ship HMS Spey, part of a deliberate effort to give the UK a persistent role in the region.
The pair provide the RN’s only permanent surface presence across a vast operating area, combining defence engagement, sanctions monitoring and sovereignty patrols.
In June 2025, HMS Spey and the Hobart-class destroyer HMAS Sydney conducted a freedom of navigation activity around the Spratly Islands.
Days earlier, Spey had transited the Taiwan Strait, the first Royal Navy passage since HMS Richmond in September 2021, prompting Beijing to describe the move as “a deliberate provocation.”
China claims most of the South China Sea within its so-called nine-dash line, a position largely rejected by an international arbitral tribunal ruling in 2016.
The UK takes no side in the competing sovereignty disputes of the littoral states but asserts the freedoms guaranteed to all nations under UNCLOS. (Also read: Think tank lauds growing global support of 2016 arbitral ruling)
The People’s Liberation Army Southern Theatre Command says it conducted patrols in the South China Sea between 21 and 27 August, a reminder that these are among the most heavily militarised waters in the world.
