Although Taiwan and China have both been left out of the world’s largest naval exercise hosted by the US, the reasons for their exclusion are very different, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said yesterday.
The biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) maritime military exercises under way in Hawaii are the largest since their inception in 1971, with 22 countries, from Japan to Tonga and from Russia to Chile, participating in a five-week series of drills.
Responding to media inquiries at a routine press briefing, Bruce Linghu (令狐榮達), director-general of the Department of North American Affairs at the ministry, said the reason Taiwan was not invited to participate in the exercise seemed clear.
The US evidently did not think the time was ripe to invite Taiwan to take part in a multilateral mechanism like RIMPAC in the absence of official diplomatic relations between the two countries and was concerned about how China would react to any such invitation, Linghu said.
Nonetheless, military cooperation and strategic dialogue between Taiwan and the US have been close, he added.
Linghu said he was not in a position to comment on why China was not invited to take part in the exercise because it was a decision pertaining to US military policy.
However, the reasons the US did not invite Taiwan and China “were two different things,” he said.
Asked to comment on the view expressed by some US analysts that Taiwan should be abandoned to pursue a better US-China relationship, Linghu said that such a view in no way represented mainstream thinking on the US’ Taiwan policy.
“Various US government officials have characterized Taiwan as an economic and security ally of the US at different occasions. In addition, Taiwan is one of the countries that shares the same values as the US,” he said.
Asked about the US position on the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), known as the Senkaku Islands in Japanese, Linghu said the contention by the US that the dispute falls within the scope of Article 5 of the 1960 US-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security did not in any way affect Taiwan’s sovereignty claims over the area.
Although Washington takes no position on which state has sovereignty over the Diaoyutai Islands, it has held the position that the Diaoyutai Islands are under -Japanese administration control since the US handed back Okinawa to Japan in 1971.
“The Republic of China maintains that it has sovereignty, as well as administrative jurisdictional power, over the Diaoyutai Islands. We have clearly expressed our position to the US and Japan since 1971 and that position has not changed,” Linghu said.
People can preregister to receive their NT$10,000 (US$325) cash distributed from the central government on Nov. 5 after President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday signed the Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience, the Executive Yuan told a news conference last night. The special budget, passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week with a cash handout budget of NT$236 billion, was officially submitted to the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. People can register through the official Web site at https://10000.gov.tw to have the funds deposited into their bank accounts, withdraw the funds at automated teller
PEACE AND STABILITY: Maintaining the cross-strait ‘status quo’ has long been the government’s position, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan is committed to maintaining the cross-strait “status quo” and seeks no escalation of tensions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, rebutting a Time magazine opinion piece that described President William Lai (賴清德) as a “reckless leader.” The article, titled “The US Must Beware of Taiwan’s Reckless Leader,” was written by Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank. Goldstein wrote that Taiwan is “the world’s most dangerous flashpoint” amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that the situation in the Taiwan Strait has become less stable
CONCESSION: A Shin Kong official said that the firm was ‘willing to contribute’ to the nation, as the move would enable Nvidia Crop to build its headquarters in Taiwan Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) yesterday said it would relinquish land-use rights, or known as surface rights, for two plots in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), paving the way for Nvidia Corp to expand its office footprint in Taiwan. The insurer said it made the decision “in the interest of the nation’s greater good” and would not seek compensation from taxpayers for potential future losses, calling the move a gesture to resolve a months-long impasse among the insurer, the Taipei City Government and the US chip giant. “The decision was made on the condition that the Taipei City Government reimburses the related
FRESH LOOK: A committee would gather expert and public input on the themes and visual motifs that would appear on the notes, the central bank governor said The central bank has launched a comprehensive redesign of New Taiwan dollar banknotes to enhance anti-counterfeiting measures, improve accessibility and align the bills with global sustainability standards, Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) told a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday. The overhaul would affect all five denominations — NT$100, NT$200, NT$500, NT$1,000 and NT$2,000 notes — but not coins, Yang said. It would be the first major update to the banknotes in 24 years, as the current series, introduced in 2001, has remained in circulation amid rapid advances in printing technology and security standards. “Updating the notes is essential to safeguard the integrity
RSS