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Three-way forum to discuss threats

Taiwan is to hold semi-official trilateral strategic talks with the US and Japan next week to explore the possibility of further security, economic and political cooperation amid the changing dynamics of the Asia-Pacific region in the face of China's rise.

The three-day closed-door meeting, held by Taiwan Thinktank from Monday to Wednesday in Taipei will be attended by former officials, academics and analysts in security and political affairs from Taiwan, the US and Japan.

Lai I-chung (賴怡忠), director of Taiwan Thinktank's international affairs department, said yesterday that the meeting is being held to enhance strategic cooperation among the three countries. It will take place against the backdrop of the step up in the US-Japan security alliance in February this year, in which the alliance extended the scope of its operations by including peace in the Taiwan Strait as its "common strategic objective."

Revision

Lai told the Taipei Times yesterday that "the meeting will explore the possibility of whether the agreement reached in Washington this February will lead to a revision of the US-Japan Security Guidelines," whose last revision was made in 1998 in response to the 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis, during which China fired missiles off the coast of Taiwan.

"Regarding specific security cooperation, the meeting will discuss issues of maritime cooperation and defense planning among the three countries," Lai said.

Dynamics

Lai said security dynamics of the Asia-Pacific region have undergone significant changes in recent years following the rise of China's military influence in the Western Pacific, the reduction of US troops in the region as a result of the US Global Posture Review of August last year, the deepening of the US-Japan alliance and the changing dynamics of the US-South Korea alliance. All these have given Taiwan further opportunities to probe the possibilities of more defense cooperation.

In economic issues, Lai said "the meeting will discuss the reorientation of the regional order in response to China's rising economic might, which has begun to dominate regional economic forums such as the East Asian Summit, from which the US and Taiwan are excluded."

Politically, the three countries will exchange views over Japan's proposed constitutional reform and Taiwan's constitutional revisions and their impact on US-Japan-Taiwan relations, Lai said.

The meeting will also probe possibilities to enhance mutual trust and communication mechanisms in the run-up to 2008, when the current administrations of each country are scheduled to finish their terms.

Participants from the US will include Randall Schriver, former US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and Robert Chaplin, former commander of US Naval Forces in Japan. From Japan Hisahiko Okazaki, former ambassador to Thailand and Sumihiko Kawamura, a retired Rear Admiral of Japan's Maritime Self Defense Force, will take part.
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