Though Taiwan has been blocked from various multilateral forums in the Asian-Pacific region, it should do more to step out and expand its international influence, Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Hung-mao (
"There is multilateral dialogue and there are cooperation mechanisms in the Asia-Pacific region, but Taiwan has either been excluded or enjoyed limited participation in them [due to pressure from China]. How to expand our room for participation under such a structural constraint is the point of what we should be striving for," Tien said yesterday, at the beginning of a three-day conference for Taiwan's diplomats and representatives from the Asian region.
Conclusions and agreements reached at the latest ASEAN informal summit -- from which Taiwan has been excluded from participation -- sparked extensive discussion among the participants at the conference, said Henry Chen (
Developments on the Korean Peninsula, following the summit between North and South Korea last June were also discussed, Chen said. "Both issues drew quite an extensive discussion because these developments are key to the region."
At the end of the ASEAN summit, which concluded on Nov. 25 last year in Singapore, the 10 ASEAN countries and its North Asian counterparts including China, South Korea and Japan, announced the possibility of holding an annual East Asian Summit and having an East Asian Free Trade Zone.
The former, analysts said, would amount to the formalization of the present "ASEAN-plus-three," and the latter would comprise the markets of about 470 million people of Southeast Asia and 1.53 billion people in Northeast Asia.
Taiwan, however, has been prevented from participating in the regional project, a development that has already drawn misgivings from local analysts and foreign ministry officials.
"We really have to watch closely the development of ASEAN-plus-three, as it's the vindication of China's continuous effort to block our living space," Lo Fu-chen (羅福全), a representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan, told the Taipei Times at the end of yesterday's meeting.
Another key issue at the conference was an evaluation of the new US administration's policy toward the region, Lo said.
"Although US President-elect Bush described Japan as the US' partner in the region and dubbed China its strategic competitor during his campaign, one should also watch closely how his administration, once in office, adjusts its Asian-Pacific policy. Currently many think-tanks in Japan have been busy mapping out measures to cope with any of the likely developments," Lo said.
Tien said in his speech that it was likely Bush would shift the "cornerstone" of US security policy to bilateral ties with regional allies such as Japan and South Korea.
Taipei's 18 ambassadors and representatives posted throughout the region as well as officials from other government agencies attended yesterday's meeting.
Officials from the Ministry of National Defense and the Mainland Affairs Council also updated participants on the security of Taiwan and the current state of cross-strait relations yesterday, Chen said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2