The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US for briefing Taiwan in advance on its latest National Security Strategy report and for reiterating its commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act in the document.
US President Donald Trump’s administration unveiled the report on Monday morning in Washington, mentioning Taiwan in its section on the Indo-Pacific region.
Presidential Office spokesman Sidney Lin (林鶴明) said that the US briefed Taiwan on the report in Taipei on Monday afternoon.
Photo: Peng Wan-hsin, Taipei Times
The guiding principles outlined in the US report as part of a strategy to bring about a free and open Indo-Pacific region, including promotion of free and fair trade and joining forces with its allies to deter threats, are “in line with our policy to pursue peace and stability in the region,” Lin said.
“We thanked the US for its prior briefing and its firm commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act,” he said.
As a member of the international community, Taiwan is committed to deepening cooperation and relationships with regional partners to contribute to the peace, stability and welfare of the region, Lin added.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed optimism about future Taiwan-US relations, saying the reference to the Taiwan Relations Act shows that Trump realizes the strategic importance of Taiwan in the Asia-Pacific region.
The government has paid close attention to and is highly interested in Trump’s “Indo-Pacific” strategy, which was proposed by the US president during his first trip to Asia last month, Department of North American Affairs Director-General Remus Chen (陳立國) said.
“We will continue to seek to understand what policies the US plans to adopt to carry out the initiative. We also hope to strengthen bilateral cooperation with Washington on various aspects under this new strategic framework,” Chen said.
Asked what role Taiwan could play in Trump’s Indo-Pacific strategy, Chen said that although the government is still conducting evaluations, it would not sit on the sidelines.
“Taiwan is situated in a coveted strategic location in East Asia and has consistently contributed to the maintenance of regional peace. As one of the stakeholders, it is impossible for us to sit on the sidelines when a major regional strategy is being formed,” he said.
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
US President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday said that “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the “status quo.” “He [Xi] considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing, but I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that,” Trump said. Trump made the comments in the context
SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarines China is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. The remarks came as two of the country’s top think tanks jointly issued a 29-page report framing actions by “right-wing forces” in Japan as posing a “serious threat” to world peace. While that report did not define “right-wing forces,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
RSS