Soldiers of the "Hard-boned Sixth Company" of the 74th Army Group of the People's Liberation Army take part in a battle drill in a coastal area of Guangdong province on June 1, 2020. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

The People's Liberation Army's Eastern Theater Command recently carried out combat exercises in the Taiwan Straits and surrounding waters to verify and boost its interservice joint operation capability, a military spokesman said.

Zhang said they were "a necessary move responding to the current security situation in the Taiwan Straits and were meant to safeguard national sovereignty"

Units from multiple services took part in the exercises in the straits, including their northern and southern ends, Senior Colonel Zhang Chunhui, the command's spokesman, said in a statement published on Thursday afternoon that did not give further details of the exercises.

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Zhang said they were "a necessary move responding to the current security situation in the Taiwan Straits and were meant to safeguard national sovereignty".

Taiwan is a sacred and indispensable part of China, he said, adding that negative acts concerning Taiwan by some foreign nations recently had sent seriously misleading signals to separatist forces and posed a severe threat to regional peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits.

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Zhang said the Eastern Theater Command will stay on high alert and take all necessary measures to fight against provocations and protect national sovereignty and territorial integrity.