US and EU officials will meet next week to initiate a strategic dialogue on Asia that will center on the EU's efforts to lift its arms embargo on China, the impact on Taiwan, and American efforts to block the EU action, US Undersecretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns announced in Washington on Thursday.
Burns disclosed the plans for the dialogue at a joint hearing of the House International Relations Committee and the House Arms Services Committee on the arms embargo issue. The hearing came amid strong congressional concern over the implications of lifting the ban for Taiwan and for the US strategic position in East Asia.
The Europeans have been pushing for a strategic dialogue since early this year in response to fervent opposition by Washington to Europe's plan to expand arms sales to Beijing. An EU delegation to Washington last month received a favorable response from US officials to their proposal for a strategic dialogue, and Burns, speaking in London last week, signaled the Bush administration's acceptance of the idea.
He repeated that during Thursday's hearing.
"What is now abundantly clear is that there is a great need to undertake a strategic dialogue with the EU on this issue [the embargo]," Burns said.
"And we will soon begin, in fact next week, a dialogue with the European Union where we will describe our interests in the United States of America as the guarantor of peace and security in Asia and the Pacific region, and in the Straits of Taiwan itself. And that strategic dialogue is long overdue, the EU has agreed to have it, and we think it might assist in resolving this dispute," Burns said.
"This will not be a negotiation over terms for lifting the embargo, but a means of ensuring, among other goals, that EU members understand the real dangers to regional security that lifting the embargo would pose," he said.
Burns reiterated US concerns that lifting the embargo would affect regional stability and hurt US security interests, and send the wrong signal in view of China's "Anti-Secession" Law.
Citing President George W. Bush's statement in February in Brussels that a transfer of technology to China would change the balance of relations between China and Taiwan, Burns said, "lifting the embargo now could also be seen as an endorsement of China's recent anti-secession legislation."
Later, he said the Anti-Secession Law had "backfired" on China by prompting Europe to reconsider its decision to lift the arms embargo, and bolstering the impact of American objections to the lifting.
Burns also echoed administration complaints about a lack of progress in China's human rights record.
BAVI: Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan and others announced work and class closures today, with the storm expected to affect Taiwan through tomorrow The outer rain bands of Typhoon Bavi would begin affecting Taiwan today, with its storm circle reaching land this evening and its level-10 wind radius covering all of northern Taiwan by noon tomorrow, an official said yesterday. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued a sea warning for the storm at 2:30pm yesterday, advising of heightened danger in eastern areas and in the Bashi Channel south of Taiwan. Typhoon Bavi is expected to bring strong winds, extremely heavy rainfall and rough seas to Taiwan today and tomorrow, with the heaviest rain forecast for mountainous areas and sustained winds of up to 12 on
Typhoon Bavi was expected to have its strongest impact on Taiwan from last night through daytime today, with its storm circle forecast to reach areas from New Taipei City’s northeast coast to Yilan and Hualien counties early today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 6pm yesterday, the center of the typhoon was about 590km east of Taiwan’s southernmost tip at Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), moving northwest at 26kph, the CWA said. The storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 155kph near its center, with gusts reaching 191kph. It had a radius of 380km. A land warning, issued at 5:30am yesterday, remains in
Typhoon Bavi lashed Taiwan yesterday, injuring 113 people, prompting the evacuation of 14,605 residents and knocking out power in 234,481 households, the government said. Most of the injuries were due to people falling off motorcycles or bicycles due to strong winds and slippery roads, and others occurred during the typhoon preparations, Central Emergency Operations Center (CEOC) data as of 8pm yesterday showed. No fatalities or severe injuries had been reported as of press time last night. Due to flooding and landslide risks, 14,605 people had been evacuated nationwide, led by 5,182 people in Hualien County, 2,096 in Taichung, 1,700 in New Taipei,
APPLICATIONS: The robots are capable of disaster and firefighting response, autonomous navigation, swarm operations as well as underground tunnel inspections, the ministry said The Ministry of Economic Affairs is working with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and industry partners to create a homegrown program to develop four-legged robots to tap into the US$4 billion global robot dog market. The initiative aims to leverage Taiwan’s strengths in information and communications technology, semiconductors and precision machinery to build indigenous technologies and a non-China supply chain, the ministry said. Technology is evolving from robotic arms to wheeled, quadruped and humanoid robots with autonomous mobility capabilities, it said. Driven by rapid advancements in generative artificial intelligence (AI), visual recognition, sensors and high-performance computing, robots are now capable of
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