Despite mounting calls to change the nation's name from the Republic of China to Taiwan, Premier Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday that the government will stick with the current moniker for its UN bid next year.
"Since rectification the nation's formal designation requires a constitutional amendment, the name we use to enter the UN will remain the Republic of China as stipulated in the Constitution," Yu told the Taipei Times during an exclusive interview yesterday.
The nation, using the name "Republic of China (Taiwan)," failed in its 11th bid to join the UN yesterday.
The word Taiwan in parentheses is used to help clarify the difference between the ROC and the People's Republic of China (PRC), Yu said.
While a significant breakthrough in the nation's continual bids to join the international body still seems a long way off, Yu said that the government will try to increase the participation of the nation's NGOs in events organized by international organizations.
"In addition, the government will fortify the international campaign to promote the nation's UN bid as well as strengthen cooperation with its diplomatic allies and major countries without diplomatic ties such as the US and EU," Yu said.
Yu said during the interview that the government will try to create a new security pact for the Asia-Pacific region, the North America-Asia Treaty Organization (NAATO).
"We anticipate Beijing's vehement opposition to our bid to create this Asian version of NATO, but we won't give up hope and will do our best to gain access to the regional alliance," Yu said. "I'm calling on its prospective members to realize that the organization will not be successful if Taiwan is not part of the safety network because there'll be a yawning chasm in regional security."
The idea of the NAATO comes as the Pentagon is preparing major shifts in the deployment of its forces in the region.
Discreet talks on the prospects for a new security system for Asian-Pacific nations have been under way between the Pentagon and the Indian government.
Professor Madhav Nalapat, an adviser to India's National Security Council and director of the School of Geopolitics at the Manipal Academy -- India's largest private university -- and one of the officials involved in the talks with the Pentagon, has long argued in favor of a formal US-led security system for the Asia-Pacific region.
He argued that the establishment of NAATO would defend democratic values and exclude countries with authoritarian structures or religious states.
"The test [for membership] has to be whether people of all faiths are given equal rights under the law, and whether they enjoy the democratic freedoms NAATO is intended to defend," Nalapat wrote in one of his essays that attracted attention in Washington.
Nalapat's proposal suggests that the US, Canada, India, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, the Philippines and South Korea -- along with pro-Western and reform-minded Arab nations such as Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar -- are natural potential members of the new security system.
Nalapat also sees Taiwan as a potential member, which is likely to heighten fears in Beijing that the new US-Indian friendship is largely aimed at containing China.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
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