The nation’s defense policy plans include expanding the number of units sharing sister relations with US military units in the coming year and further solidifying the “virtual alliance” between the Taiwanese and US militaries, while looking to establish “actual alliance” relationships with other allied nations, military officials said.
The military has been invited to visit the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico next year to conduct live-fire tests of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 surface-to-air missiles, officials said.
Planned exercises for the visit to the US Joint Readiness Training Center in Fort Polk, Louisiana ,include observation of the training of US forces prior to deployment in simulated scenarios.
The air force has also been invited to attend national air force drills in Europe as an observer next year, officials said, adding that it was a big step toward establishing “actual” military alliances in the region.
Budgets and primary goals have been submitted to the Legislative Yuan for review, with aims to establish new contacts, maintaining current military contacts and forming actual military alliances acting as guidelines for the coming year, officials said.
The Ministry of National Defense said it hopes to be invited to observe and even participate in US military drills in an effort to enhance joint combat capabilities, adding that such invitations could help establish trust and consensus between the Taiwanese and US armed forces.
Taiwan should also look to forge alliances outside of the US and Japan by stepping up military interaction with regional players such as South Korea, Southeast Asian nations, Central and South America and Africa, the ministry said.
Visits by high-ranking military officials, academic interaction, training exercises and arms sales are all methods to be considered, the ministry said, adding that multiple military cooperation agreements with regional players would help establish a safe cooperation mechanism that would be conducive to maintaining regional stability.
Earlier this month, US-Taiwan Business Council president Rupert Hammond-Chambers said that a new Taiwan arms package is making its way through the channels of the US political system.
“I would characterize the programs that are being looked at now — and these have all popped up in the last year or so — as house cleaning,” Hammond-Chambers said.
The new package is to consist of second-hand equipment, upgraded equipment and munitions.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching