By Lucy Craymer, Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee

WELLINGTON/TAIPEI, Dec 9 (Reuters) – The New Zealand navy’s largest ship encountered a Taiwanese warship as it sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait last month, the country’s armed forces said on Tuesday, as they ‍published a rare picture of what happened.

The oiler the HMNZS Aotearoa sailed from the South China Sea to the North Asian region via the Taiwan Strait on November 5, and was shadowed by seven different Chinese warships which maintained a safe and professional distance, the New Zealand Defence Force has previously said.

In a picture on its website on Monday accompanying a story about the ship’s Asia ‌mission, the defence force showed a New Zealand sailor watching through ‌binoculars a warship in the distance, though it did not

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