Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee (李大維) yesterday said the ministry had contacted the US to clear up any concerns over Minister of National Defense Feng Shih-kuan’s (馮世寬) remarks regarding shipments of ammunition to Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島) in the South China Sea, calling his wording “a slip of the tongue.”
“We have expressed to the US that Feng’s remarks do not reflect what he really thinks and it was probably just a slip of the tongue,” Lee said on the sidelines of a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.
Elaborating on the issue when answering questions from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), Lee said the foreign ministry contacted the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) on Monday afternoon after Feng made the statements.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
“I am sure that the AIT immediately passed on our clarification to the US Department of State, whose response was in line with Washington’s typical stance,” Lee said.
Lee was referring to Feng’s comments at a meeting of the committee on Monday, at which he said that 40,000 rounds of ammunition would be delivered within one month to the nation’s southern maritime outposts on Itu Aba Island and the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島).
Feng retracted his remarks the next day, saying ammunition was to be shipped only to the Pratas Islands.
US Department of State Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs spokeswoman Grace Choi on Tuesday told the Chinese-language United Daily News that claimants in the South China Sea need to reduce tensions.
AIT spokeswoman Sonia Urbom yesterday called on concerned parties to reduce tensions, rather than taking action that could raise them.
Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said the government’s stance on South China Sea disputes has always been clear, which is that all claimants’ territorial and maritime claims in the area must conform to international law and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
“All claimants are obligated to respect the freedom of navigation on and flight over the South China Sea,” Huang said.
“We also urge all parties to resolve disputes through peaceful means and include Taiwan in a multilateral peaceful conflict settlement process,” he said.
At the legislative session, Lee acknowledged that President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) state visit to Panama and Paraguay later this month was facing a NT$40 million (US$1.24 million) budgetary shortfall, possibly due to former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) seven-day visit to two of the nation’s diplomatic allies in Central America in March.
“Despite an annual budget of NT$120 million earmarked for the president’s and vice president’s foreign visits, we still need to allocate NT$40 million from the foreign ministry’s budget for international meetings and exchanges or first reserve funds for this trip,” Lee said.
Asked whether the shortage was the result of overspending by Ma during his final overseas trip as president, Lee said he could not say that, but added that the foreign ministry would next year ask for a larger budget from the Executive Yuan’s Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics.
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