Taiwan is very much on the US’ radar and remains an important component of Washington’s strategy in the West Pacific, a top defense official said in an interview published yesterday.
Deputy Minister of National Defense Andrew Yang (楊念祖), who recently returned from one of his frequent visits to the US, told Defense News in an interview conducted late last month that while Taiwan does not figure prominently in the US rebalance — commonly referred to as the “pivot” — to Asia, Taipei and Washington have “widely” cooperated over the past two years or so.
“We have had continuous discussions on strategic relations between our two countries. We have also discussed joint operations and have had a lot of discussions on how to help us develop new doctrines reinforcing our defenses as a result of continuous modernization,” he said.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan and the US have also had discussions on joint logistics support and training, he said, adding that the US was putting “a lot of effort into how to improve defense ties between Taipei and Washington.”
“Of course, we are continuously discussing how to help Taiwan develop so-called asymmetrical advanced capabilities, which is certainly very important for our self-defense and for preventing war in this region in the course of conducting rapprochement across the Taiwan Strait,” said Yang, who is policy coordinator at the ministry.
Echoing remarks by US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs Kurt Campbell, Yang said strong self-defense capabilities were “a very important pillar to support the peace process across the Taiwan Strait.”
Photo: Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo
He added he was very pleased with his meeting with US Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter in Washington on Oct. 2.
This was a “very candid and constructive” discussion that touched on a wide range of issues regarding defense cooperation under the umbrella of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA).
“He [Carter] emphasized that Taiwan was very much on the US radar,” Yang said. “When US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta gave the address at the 2012 Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore in June, he also mentioned Taiwan regarding the US pivot towards Asia … so Taiwan is still part of the US’ Western Pacific strategy.”
“If you look at the [TRA], it emphasizes that Taiwan is very important for the security of the Western Pacific and the US fully supports Taiwan accessing sufficient defense articles, assistance and services,” Yang said.
Asked whether Washington’s continued refusal to sell Taiwan F-16C/Ds and diesel-electric submarines was a sign that the US might not continue to supply Taiwan with defensive weapons, Yang struck an optimistic note saying that Washington’s decision to upgrade Taiwan’s 145 F-16A/Bs had created “a very important window of opportunity to discuss further needs for advanced jet fighters.”
He added that the submarines were still very much on the table and remained a priority in defense acquisition, along with upgrades, modernization, systems integration and C4ISR capabilities. He added that the ministry had made the Executive Yuan aware that Taiwan would need a lot of money over the next two years or so to pay for the aggregate US$18 billion in arms sales released by the US in past years.
Yang said he did not believe the US was ignoring Taiwan’s defense needs to placate China nor was on the brink of abandoning it for the sake of better relations with Beijing.
“I heard some of these comments during my visit to Washington, but from the US government’s point of view, they are very much interested in improving ties with Taiwan,” he said.
“As far as I can see, I don’t think the US is unintentionally pushing Taipei towards Beijing,” Yang said, adding it would be “pretty bad” for the US and the region if Taiwan and China unified or drew strategically closer, because Washington would lose the trust of its Asia partners.
Turning to the ministry’s ongoing efforts to create armed forces made up entirely of volunteers by 2015, Yang said the nation faces a lot of challenges, but said the legislature had released the finances necessary to carry out the transformation.
Recruitment is scheduled to commence in January, with the number of soldiers dropping from 210,000 at present to 190,000 by 2015 and with no further plans for reduction following that drop, he said.
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
BETTER SERVICE QUALITY: From Nov. 10, tickets with reserved seats would only be valid for the date, train and route specified on the ticket, THSRC said Starting on Nov. 10, high-speed rail passengers with reserved seats would be required to exchange their tickets to board an earlier train. Passengers with reserved seats on a specific train are currently allowed to board earlier trains on the same day and sit in non-reserved cars, but as this is happening increasingly often, and affecting quality of travel and ticket sales, Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) announced that it would be canceling the policy on Nov. 10. It is one of several new measures launched by THSRC chairman Shih Che (史哲) to improve the quality of service, it said. The company also said
A magnitude 6 earthquake last night at 9:11pm struck off northeastern Yilan County, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The earthquake’s epicenter was located in waters between Toucheng Township (頭城) and Turtle Island (Gueishan Island, 龜山島), about 22.1km northeast of Yilan County Hall at a depth of 112km, CWA data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Yilan’s Dongshan (冬山) and Nanao (南澳) townships and Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義), where it measured 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. It measured 3 in other areas of Yilan and Taipei, as